


Leave Your Mark On Me

by kingsofeverything (FullOnLarrie)



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Alpha Liam Payne, Alpha Louis, Alpha Louis Tomlinson, Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Alternate Universe - Restaurant, Beta Niall Horan, Chef Harry, Chef Harry Styles, Coming In Pants, Coming Untouched, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Friends With Benefits, Knotting, M/M, Manager Louis, Mating Bites, Mating Bond, Mating Cycles/In Heat, Minor Violence, Miscommunication, Omega Harry, Omega Harry Styles, Omega Zayn Malik, Restaurant Manager Louis, Restaurants, Smut, Unrealistic Sex, Zayn talks Harry off in the car but as friends? Still thought I should tag it just in case, not between H and L see notes for more
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-29
Updated: 2019-01-29
Packaged: 2019-10-13 00:23:38
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 32,059
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17477783
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FullOnLarrie/pseuds/kingsofeverything
Summary: When Chef Harry Styles’ unbonded Omega designation threatens to derail his career, he does the only thing he can, and goes in search of a black market bond.





	Leave Your Mark On Me

**Author's Note:**

> Hellooooooo I wrote an A/B/O fic! I’m as shocked as you are! It was a pain in the ass and I’ll probably never write another one. It’s too much to keep up with—the scents and stuff overwhelm me lol. 
> 
> Thank you to [Nic](http://louandhazaf.tumblr.com) for being generally amazing in every way and also for betaing :D
> 
> Thanks to [Jess](http://someonethatsfunny.tumblr.com) for letting me steal her name and always being supportive. 
> 
> Title is inspired by the line “You left your mark on me, it’s permanent, a tattoo” from the song ‘Right In Time’ by Lucinda Williams, which is a song about masturbation! 
> 
> **there’s a scene that almost gets violent (not H and L, see end notes for details if this might be triggering for you)
> 
> **A/B/O Notes for this AU:**  
>  •Bonds don’t have to happen during sex, though non-sex “quick-bonds” dissipate in six lunar cycles.  
> •Virtually everyone is on some form of suppressant—Alphas too. They’re quarterly injections that basically make life a lot easier.  
> •Due to those meds, Omegas don’t produce much, if any, slick, except during heats or during sex, if they’re mated to an Alpha.  
> •Ruts and heats are induced and most people choose to have only one per year, but both Alphas and Omegas remain lucid during them.  
> •Knots happen every time an Alpha orgasms.  
> •A/B/O presentation happens post-puberty, so most people are mid to late teens, early twenties when it happens.
> 
> [Tumblr fic post is here](http://kingsofeverything.tumblr.com/post/182413130500/leave-your-mark-on-me-by-fullonlarrie-when-chef), and you know I’ll love it if you reblog it.

Ω

“It’s perfect,” Zayn says. “Well, as perfect as the situation could be.” 

Harry’s been telling himself the same thing. The Alpha doesn’t live there; Liam says he’s in town with his family for the holidays. He’s willing to bond by bite only. And he’s bonded that way before, so he has experience.

He snorts quietly and crosses his arms, pushing his back against the warmth of the passenger seat of Zayn’s car. “A thousand bucks.”

Even looking out the window, Harry can tell when Zayn rolls his eyes. “When I was bonded before I met Liam it cost me _two_ thousand.” 

“Yeah, yeah.” 

It’s not the money. It’s the principle of the thing. An unbonded Omega is just as capable of running a kitchen as a bonded one, or a Beta, or an Alpha for that matter. They shouldn’t be able to pass anyone over for a job because of their designation. 

They’re silent the rest of the way and Harry zones out until Zayn reaches across the back of his seat and scratches his nails through Harry’s long hair and he realizes they’ve stopped. Zayn’s cinnamon and vanilla scent is comforting, and Harry breathes it in. 

Zayn sighs and says, “It’ll be fine. You know what to expect. I’m here. Liam’s inside. And you’ll hardly notice the bond once you’re in New York.”

“Right. I’m sure there are plenty of people willing to mess around with a bonded Omega who likes to top.” 

Zayn snorts. “You won’t have time anyway. But you knew this going in, H. You’re the one who wants the job.”

Harry groans miserably. “Fine.”

Still, he waits for Zayn to actually get out of the car before he opens the passenger side door. He reaches into the back seat for the little bag he packed and follows Zayn through the hotel lobby. The elevator stops on almost every floor and Harry’s stomach lurches every time, doing a final flip when Zayn nudges him and they step off onto the fourteenth floor. 

“You alright, man?” Zayn squeezes Harry’s shoulder and leans closer.

“Yeah, just—” Harry shakes his head quickly. “Just want to get it over with.”

Suite twenty-eight on the fourteenth floor has heavy double wooden doors and before Zayn can step close enough to knock, one of the doors swings open, and Harry smells Liam’s familiar chocolate scent for a second, but then it mixes with Zayn’s and Harry smiles.

“Hey, babe,” Zayn pops a kiss on Liam’s cheek and leads Harry inside. He waves at Liam as he passes him in the doorway, unable to think of a single word to say to him, and too nervous to open his mouth and try. 

Harry paces in front of the couch while Zayn and Liam disappear back down the hall, stopping when he hears the door shut once more. Knowing that Liam is waiting in the hallway now, and will walk them to the elevator afterwards, means he’s one concrete step closer to bonding with a stranger. And though he knows what happens next, he waits for Zayn to talk him through it.

“His name is Louis—”

“The Alpha.” Harry rolls his eyes.

“Yeah.” Zayn tips his head to the side and raises his eyebrows, asking if he can continue. “Louis is waiting in the bedroom. You can leave the door cracked open if you want, but you might want the privacy. He’ll bite you, make sure the bond takes, then we go.”

Mouth too dry to speak, Harry nods, then rolls his shoulders back and strides towards the closed bedroom door. He freezes, hand on the doorknob. With a single knuckle, he knocks.

A few seconds later, the door opens and Harry has a moment of thinking he’s somehow ended up in the wrong place or that his sense of smell is failing him, because the guy on the other side of the doorway is built more like the Omegas that he prefers to date, a bit shorter than he is, with a delicate bone structure. Slight but powerful. But he smells the way Alphas are always described in romance novels: dark and earthy and rich. Harry swallows audibly and steps inside the bedroom, shutting the door before dropping his bag on the bed. He pulls the envelope of cash out, and throws it on the dresser. 

“Harry, right?” Louis asks, voice clipped. When Harry nods, Louis continues. “Okay, well, um… It’ll hurt, but not too badly. My saliva will help and—”

“It’s fine.” Harry holds a hand up, fighting not to roll his eyes and says, “I know what I’m doing. You don’t need to explain. Money’s all there.” 

It’s a dickhead thing to say and Harry knows it. He’s embarrassed as soon as the words leave his mouth, and his face burns, but he can’t apologize when he’s already at such a power disadvantage. Instead he shrugs off his coat and lays it on the bed with his things, then pulls off his sweater and t-shirt, folding them on top of his coat. 

“Fine.” Louis removes his own shirt and tosses it onto the chair in the corner. “I’ll bite you. Have to break the skin, but for it to stick without sex, I’ll have to, um… suck and lick on it for a bit.”

“A bit?” Harry huffs, and suddenly feeling very naked he picks up his folded towel and holds it in front of his chest. “How long is a bit?”

“I don’t know. Like, two, three, four minutes? It’s not as fast to settle as a bond forged in a, um, more traditional manner. You’ll feel it sort of lock into place, um…” Louis drops his chin to his chest and rubs his eyes with his thumb and forefinger. Lifting his head again, he meets Harry’s eyes and says, “Once the bond’s set, I’ll go in the bathroom. You’ve got— You _have_ to be gone when I come out.” 

Harry recoils slightly at the forcefulness of Louis’ tone, though it’s clearly not his Alpha voice. As if Harry plans to stay overnight after they bond. He wants as little as possible to do with bonds or Alphas or Louis, and will be perfectly happy to leave ASAP. The fact that he even has to do something like this—pay some stranger to enter into an unwanted bond with him, in order to be considered worthy enough to hold down the same job that he’s pretty much been doing for the past two years—disgusts him. 

With a quick nod, Harry steps into Louis’ space, wanting to get it over with. He’s never been good at being an Omega; never thought twice about voicing an opinion or making his presence known. The pitfalls of presenting at twenty-four after having spent most of his life assuming he’d wind up an Alpha or maybe a Beta if he was lucky. 

Without stepping back, Louis somehow makes room for Harry in his space, and even though he was the one to initiate it, it feels as though Louis is allowing him to fit there. He hates it. 

He should count his lucky stars that Louis seems alright. Some of the stories he read about “black market bonding” scared him shitless, some he couldn’t even finish. 

After a steadying breath, Harry turns his head to the side, baring his neck to Louis who stands there clenching and unclenching his fists at his sides. 

“I have to scent you.” 

“Oh.” Harry nods and closes his eyes. “Forgot.”

“It’s fine. Not like this is something you do every day.” 

Harry bristles at Louis’ words, the thought forming at the back of his mind that Louis is profiting off of this. He’s experienced with quick-bonds. Must be an easy way to make some extra money. But as soon as the thoughts start up, they’re… subdued. And Harry is enveloped in an invisible cloud of calm contentment. He pushes closer to Louis, tipping his head and offering more of his bare neck, arms hanging limply at his sides. 

“Do you want to lie down?” Louis asks and when he does Harry’s able to pick out one single note from the blend of Louis’ scent. Vanilla. Boring on its own and typically more obvious than it is coming from Louis, it’s there underneath… everything else. Harry shakes his head. The last thing he needs to do is lie down on a bed with some strange Alpha. Standing gives him more control.

He focuses on Louis’ scent as he leans in, eyes darting to Harry’s neck and mouth before he makes eye contact and holds it until Harry looks away, flush creeping up his neck. 

Hooking one arm around Harry’s middle, Louis wraps his other arm around Harry’s upper body, pulling his head to the side and nuzzling the crook of Harry’s neck. Instantly Harry’s surrounded by layer upon layer of this soothing scent that his slightly foggy brain can’t identify. 

Breath hot on his skin, Louis drags his teeth over Harry’s neck and Harry shivers, practically purring until Louis bites down hard, breaking the skin and startling a yelp out of him. He attempts to wrench his body away, but Louis keeps a tight hold on him. A second later, Louis pulls back, licking the wound, and though Harry finally steadies in his arms, Louis doesn’t release the grip he has on Harry’s long hair. The fingers tangled in his curls help hold him in place, but at this point they help to hold him up as well. 

Once Louis has licked his bite to his satisfaction, he sucks on it, teeth pressing into the skin almost on top of the other marks, and Harry groans, going slack in Louis’ arms. Alternately licking and sucking the bite, Louis gets Harry’s entire neck and shoulder messy. 

On a particularly hard and wet suck, Louis’ body twitches and he growls so low and quiet that it almost sounds like a purr. Harry feels something let go in his spine and it’s as if he has sensation in a part of his body that was numb up until now. Like a phantom limb. 

His cock twitches in his pants and he’s never been more thankful for the suppressants that allow him to live his life without worrying he’ll gush slick all over the place if he gets a little turned on. Still, his cock is hard and the thrumming inside has turned to an ache. 

Louis should fuck him. They’re both hard and they’ve already got the hotel suite, and Harry’s so turned on— 

The mattress bounces when Harry lands on his bum and falls onto his back, and he sees the bathroom door shutting in his peripheral vision. He blinks up at the ceiling, trying to catch his breath, then scrambles up off the bed when he hears the shower turn on, suddenly very aware that he’s alone with an Alpha. 

All of the things he laid out on the bed are in a jumbled mess and he shoves them unceremoniously into the bag, throwing his towel around his shoulders and his shirt and coat over his arm. Before Zayn gets up off the couch, Harry’s waiting at the door to the suite, rubbing the towel over his neck and shoulder as if he can erase the bond. Zayn hurries down the hall and pulls the door open, ushering Harry into the corridor where Liam is waiting. 

Liam and Zayn take what they can from Harry’s arms and guide him towards the elevators. By the time Liam pushes the down arrow at the elevator and kisses Zayn goodbye, Harry has his shirt back on. His sweater and coat are still draped over his arm, the towel is around his neck, and his dick is so fucking hard that he keeps looking down to make sure it isn’t escaping from his jeans. Glancing up, Harry sees his reflection in the metallic surface of the elevator wall and he spreads his legs, palming himself.

“Dude, can you not?” Zayn tuts and unnecessarily pushes the button for the parking garage again and again. “Just wait for the car. Knew this would happen. It’s you, for fuck’s sake. Come on.” Zayn loops an arm under Harry’s and tries to help him out of the elevator, but Harry brushes him off.

“I’m fine. Just… I didn’t expect this.” Harry gestures at his erection, then takes as much of it in hand as he can with the heavy denim of his jeans in the way. Groaning, he gives himself a squeeze. “He smelled incredible.” 

Harry climbs into the backseat of the car and lays down, and before Zayn has pulled out of the parking space, he has his jeans down around his thighs and his cock in his hand. 

“Jesus, dude. What’d he do to you?”

“Nothing. What you said he would. Just… I…” Harry pants, jerking himself off fast and hard. Then he stops, letting his hands fall limply to his sides, watching his cock bob around in the glow of the streetlights. 

Punching the seat back instead of punching Louis, Harry snarls, “I hate this shit. Hate Alphas. Hate that guy. _Louis._ Hate him for bonding for money. Hate my job for making me do this. Hate being a fucking O. Hate feeling so out of control.” Harry punches the seat once more and then just sort of lets go, everything but his dick going limp. 

“Babe.” Zayn peeks back over his shoulder, eyes catching on Harry’s dick. He’s embarrassed now that he can see himself in the back seat of Zayn’s car, cock out and hard enough to hurt. He knows his Omega cock is unusual. It’s part of the reason he never imagined he’d be an O. 

He’s part of less than half a percentage of the population of Omegas with abnormally large penises. Which works out to be a slightly above average sized cock for a Beta, and is perfectly fine for Harry, considering he’s versatile and only dates Betas and other Os. 

He already had his preferences, sexual and otherwise, before he learned that he was supposed to only want to get fucked. Which he’s on board with. One hundred percent. He just likes it both ways and he’s much more likely to find that with a Beta or maybe another O. 

The last thing he wants is an Alpha. 

Harry sighs defeatedly and wraps his hand around his dick, jacking it fast, trying to get off as quickly as possible.

“Babe,” Zayn repeats and when Harry hums, Zayn pitches his voice lower and asks, “You wet?”

“Fuck. Forgot you—” Harry dips two fingers down behind his balls, pressing into his crack and swiping the tips through the wetness there. “Yeah, I’m wet. Fuck. He smelled so good.”

“Get comfy. Half hour before we’re home.” Zayn clears his throat and adjusts the rearview mirror. “Fuck yourself on two fingers. Don’t come yet.”

Harry whines, even as he’s rolling onto his side for a better angle with his fingers. It’s been years. So many years that Harry had forgotten what Zayn’s part-time job had been all through college. And they’ve only done this once before—the night before Zayn’s interview test call—because Zayn was worried he wouldn’t be able to get anyone off with his voice. He talked Harry through coming twice that night. 

Harry hisses when he pushes his fingers in deep, swirling them around inside and gathering slick to spread over his dick as soon as Zayn tells him to. 

“When I bonded with that Alpha so I could go to Europe alone for a semester abroad, I got a bit horny, yeah, but not like you. Desperate with your cock out in my back seat.”

Harry whines as Zayn continues, “I went home and fucked myself in bed—” Harry fucks up into his fist at that image. “—but you’ve been half naked fucking two fingers into yourself the whole ride home just because I told you to.”

Zayn makes him slow down, so he doesn’t come too soon, and it’s not until he’s talking about knotting that Harry knows he’s going he’s going to come. “That Alpha— _Louis_ holding you down? Fucking you hard? Making you take it?” Harry whines again, trying to get his fingers deeper. “Knotting you and filling you up? You’d take it so well.” He wasn’t told to, but Harry gives himself a third finger anyway. Because he can. Because he doesn’t need permission. It’s Zayn after all. Holding his hands still, fingers buried in his ass, fist tight around his cock, Harry rocks his hips back and forth.

“Don’t get anything on the upholstery, filthy boy.”

Harry comes just before Zayn pulls onto their street. By the time they’re parked, Harry’s cotton briefs are soaked with slick and cold against his skin, his jeans are damp, and his erection hasn’t flagged at all. But he followed directions and the seat’s clean.

Zayn holds the door open for him, and he goes straight for the dirty laundry where he drops his come-covered shirt. He surveys the apartment, taking in the boxes and empty walls, before heading to his bedroom to get off again. 

It’s his usual New Year’s Eve ritual; an orgasm on either side of midnight. He’s just doing it alone this time. 

He’s got fifteen minutes to the new year and, with as hard as he still is after coming all over his stomach in the back of Zayn’s car, he knows exactly what he needs to come twice more. Thank fuck for Zayn because Harry cannot think of another person in the universe who could talk him off for thirty minutes while driving seventy-plus miles an hour down the interstate and only care about the state of their car’s leather upholstery. 

Harry calls out, “Happy new year, Z!” tosses his things onto his bed and shuts his bedroom door before Zayn has a chance to respond. 

With the suppressants and supplements that he takes, even when Harry has the urge to get fucked, he doesn’t always want to take a knot. Not that he’s ever taken an _actual_ knot before. Semantics. 

The only time he has the overwhelming need to be stuffed full of cock is during his heat; occasionally he’ll jerk off with a finger or two in his ass, but most of the time when he masturbates, it’s quick and easy and he leaves his bum out of it. 

Zayn knew how badly Harry’d want to be filled and distracted him from it the whole way home, but now that he’s alone in his room, Harry growls low in his throat, angry again. It’s unfair that the law is so far behind and that quick-bonding is something that’s necessary. And he hates how taken advantage of he feels, even though he went into this night and this quick-bond willingly. 

It’s not Louis, it’s the system. Normally Harry’s the type to hate the game and not the player, but he’s always been a little petty, and Louis is a stranger who he’ll never see again, so he feels free to hate him as much as he wants. Especially his scent. Potent and raw, layered and balanced, deep and velvety, still he’s unable to name a single note other than vanilla. It’s annoying and helps fuel his anger.

By the time Harry’s naked again, two fingers back inside him, he’s shaking and flushed and fumbles with the box of toys when he drags it out from under his bed one handed. On the occasion that he gets fucked by another O or a Beta, Harry uses lube since his supplements dry out most of his slick, but he doesn’t need it tonight and the thought makes him clench his jaw and close his eyes. He considers using lube anyway just to spite Louis, but Louis would never know, and though he’s never admitted it out loud, even alone in his bedroom, he likes his slick. The glide of it. The smell. The taste. 

Harry gathers some of his slick and covers his dick in it, slowly stroking himself while he steadily pushes his dildo past his rim, groaning at the drag and, as he speeds up his thrusts, shuddering at the unmistakable wet sound of the deflated, yet still prominent knot popping in and out of his body. 

The last orgasm that Harry has before the New Year happens just after he pushes the button to inflate the knot on his dildo, before it’s even fully expanded, the first time it slightly catches on his rim. With his mouth open on a silent cry, Harry comes without a hand on his cock, both of his own hands behind his back, adjusting and twisting the thick dildo between his cheeks. 

As soon as he comes down from that high, Harry checks his phone, picking it up just as the clock flips to midnight and fireworks sound outside the window. His first orgasm of the new year is harder won and as mentally dissatisfying as it is physically satisfying. 

With the vibrator setting on low, Harry leaves the knotted dildo in his ass, laying on his stomach as he clenches around it, and fights against the mental image of Louis on top of him, pinning him down with his cock. When he literally cannot stop thinking about him, Harry deflates his dildo and removes it, laying it next to him on the bed, before rolling onto his side and using both hands to put extra effort into giving himself the handjob of the century. 

Ignoring the aching emptiness is near impossible, but Harry is nothing if not stubborn, refusing to allow himself to enjoy it when he dips past his rim to wet his cock again. His body betrays him though, the single _efficient_ plunge of two of his fingers and he trembles, every hair on his body standing on end while he whimpers uncontrollably, shutting his eyes tight. 

He’s wet, not like the few heats he’s had, but much more than he ever has otherwise, and the dildo slides back in effortlessly. Just a few thrusts and Harry starts to inflate the knot, pausing when pushing it inside stings a bit. He takes a deep breath, debating for only a second before he reaches across his bed for the towel he used to clean his blood and Louis’ spit from his skin. 

On his stomach once more, with one hand gripping the handle at the base of his dildo, forcing the partially inflated knot past his rim again and again, while his cock is trapped between his come sticky stomach and the pillow beneath his hips, Harry buries his face in the crumpled cotton towel, whining as he inhales, and letting the scent carry him away.

He should’ve made Zayn blindfold him for his quick-bonding with Louis because as soon as the vanilla underneath Louis’ scent makes its way to Harry’s senses, he can’t stop the raw want and torrent of images behind his eyes. Louis holding him down flat against the mattress while he forces the head of his fat Alpha cock past what little resistance Harry’s body puts up, his slick dribbling out as Louis fills him completely. 

With his free hand, Harry digs his fingertips into the fresh wound of his bond mark, sobbing at the echoing mixture of pain and pleasure, as the knot on his dildo gradually expands. Every time it pops past his rim, Harry’s breath catches, and he’s dizzy and lightheaded by the time the knot is too big for him to pull out. With it snug inside, he turns the vibrations up, nuzzling into the towel, and thrusting his hips down against the bed, but it’s not enough. 

Wedging his hand between his body and the pillow beneath him, Harry grabs the base of his cock, immediately fucking into his hand and rubbing his mouth and nose on the towel. Louis’ scent surrounds him and while physically he remains on his stomach, inside his mind Harry sees himself from above, on his back, legs bouncing in the air with each harsh thrust until they’re pushed so far forward that they can’t move anymore. The silence of his room is filled with wet sounds, breathy moans and the slap of their bodies slamming together.

Harry squeezes his eyes shut tight, clenching down on the knot inside him, blinking his eyes open for a second before shutting them again. As soon as he does, his point-of-view flips and he’s no longer watching himself from above. 

Lying on his back on the mattress, body bent in half, all he can see is Louis. His soft hair tickles when Louis shakes his head and it brushes across Harry’s face, releasing a whiff of his scent, wrapping it more tightly around them. Louis grinds against Harry’s ass, knot tugging at his rim, and Harry chokes on air, feeling like he could turn inside out from pleasure.

With a sly grin, Louis licks his lips and kisses Harry, making it dirty fast, threading his fingers through Harry’s hair and pulling it tight while he tastes Harry’s mouth. Louis leans back, a string of saliva connecting their mouths that Harry bats away, then he dips down, presses his mouth against Harry’s bond mark and bites. 

Harry comes into his own hand while his dildo vibrates on high, inflatable knot rubbing firmly against his prostate every time he shifts his hips. The scent of vanilla in his nose is joined by the smell of cocoa and Harry frowns. 

Without bothering to wipe the come from his skin, Harry stumbles down the hall, still shaky from his last orgasm and what it took to get there, dragging his bedding and clothes from tonight to the washing machine. He throws the towel on top and uses extra detergent, hoping that it won’t take more than two or three washes to get the smell of Louis out. 

Vanilla and cocoa, two of the most basic pheromone scents that he’s always been able to pick out immediately upon smelling them, yet he’s barely able to discern them. That says nothing for the rest of it. The layers of Louis’ scent that he hasn’t identified will have to remain a mystery because once Harry’s taken a long, steaming hot shower, washing his body and his toys, and thrown his laundry in the dryer, Louis’ scent is gone. 

The memory of it remains, at least until Harry falls asleep that night on a bare mattress under the blanket off the back of the couch that smells strongly of Zayn. And he ignores the hollow sensation in his chest when he wakes up the next morning and tries, but fails to remember the scent. 

There’s an odd blend of regret, optimism, hope, and relief coursing through him. Everything will be brand new tomorrow.

Ω

With the new job comes a six-month lease on an apartment that he’s sharing with his new Sous Chef, a Beta named Niall Horan. It starts on the first of January, but his work doesn’t start until the following Monday when the large kitchen equipment will start arriving at the back door of the restaurant. 

Over the weekend, their new work uniforms are delivered, and by Sunday night, if it weren’t for the itching as it heals, Harry would have forgotten all about the bond and Louis and the fucking hoops he has to jump through for this job. The eerie hollow feeling is something he ignores. When they try everything on for size, Harry sends a silent thank you out into the universe that his chef’s uniform includes a black double breasted coat with a high collar that more than covers his bond mark. The lamplight reflects in his mirror and glints off the silver thread of the embroidery above his left breast pocket: _Chef Harry Styles._ He ties his long hair up in a bun and fits his chef’s hat on his head and tries not to smile too wide at himself in the mirror.

Ω

The built-in walk-in coolers should be ready to go when Harry arrives at the restaurant, and if Niall will stop walking slightly in front of him, Harry could get there first to unlock the door. 

After Niall edges over in front of him for the fourth time since they got off the subway, Harry steps on the back of his shoe, tripping him up and beating him to the restaurant where, instead of unlocking the back door and leading Niall inside, Harry blocks the doorway completely, arms crossed and keys dangling from his fingers.

“Niall, I’m telling you this now because, besides being your boss, I’m also your roommate. If you ever try to put me in a subservient position again, we’ll have words. If you do it in the restaurant, I’ll fire you.”

When Niall finally gathers himself together, he says, “Sorry, Chef. Just, um… Feel free to step on my shoe again, if necessary.”

Harry rolls his eyes and laughs quietly, turns around and unlocks the door, flooding the darkened room with sunlight and stepping inside the warm kitchen. Before the heavy door slams shut behind Niall, Harry flips the entire panel of light switches, illuminating the whole kitchen. “I had to set an example when I was first made Sous Chef and I know before this day is out, I’ll have to knock some Alpha down a peg or two for posturing.”

“If you don’t mind me saying, um…” Niall clears his throat. “For an Omega, you're—” 

“Don’t tell me I’m cool for a girl, Niall. I don’t know which is worse.”

“Wasn’t going to say that. Just that you’re a bit more, I don’t know, not really aggressive, but like, assertive. I get it. And I respect that. I don’t know what it’s like being an O and being the boss, but I can imagine.” Niall pulls his chef’s hat on and says, “If you ever need anything, let me know.” 

Harry pushes through the swinging double doors into a corridor off the kitchen which opens onto an empty dining room. The tables are all over the place and the chairs are too, some of them upside down on top of the tables and some pushed against the wall. Tall, high back bar stools are balanced all the way down the dark cherry wood of the bar top and Harry pulls them off, one at a time. 

The waitstaff can do the rest of the dining room, but Harry wants to check the keg connections and the soda guns and the rest of the bar equipment and it’ll be easier with the chairs down. It’s not technically his job, it’s front of the house, but in his experience it gets forgotten about. 

Everything is working fine, but there’s a light under the bar on the customer side that isn’t on, so Harry heaves himself across the bar top, feet dangling above the floor, and feels around underneath the bar for the switch. He kicks a leg out to help him reach a little further, freezing when he hears the front door to the restaurant open and a surprised laugh bubble out of the person who is probably the front of the house manager. Harry starts to wiggle his way off the bar. 

“It’s a little to the right. Past the ice bin.”

Harry freezes again, then stretches his arm as far as he can to the right until his fingertips catch the switch and flip it. When he places his hands on the wooden bar top to push himself off, Harry inhales deeply, so the warm scent he registers tells him who’s standing there behind him a few seconds before he sees him. He uses those extra seconds to panic.

“Niall!” Harry shouts as loud as he can, voice straining. He can see it dawn on Louis what Harry’s just done, can see it register that the two of them aren’t alone, that whatever plans he may have— 

“Stop.” Louis doesn’t raise his voice. He doesn’t have to with the Alpha edge he adds to it. Harry stops. Continuing in the same firm and level tone, forcing Harry to listen, Louis says, “Harry, I don’t know what’s going on, but this is a coincidence. Let me explain. You’ll lose your job.” The last bit Louis says quick and quiet, but still commanding, and Harry blinks. 

The sound of Niall bursting through the double doors to the kitchen is deafening in the silence of the dining room and Harry doesn’t move, even when Niall rushes out of the corridor and stumbles into the table right inside the door. 

“Chef?” Niall asks, looking from Harry, who must look a mess with as hot as his face feels, to Louis, who’s standing there palms out, keys hanging from one finger. 

Slowly, Louis turns to face Niall, cocking his hip and resting his hand there. “Hi. We haven’t met. I’m Louis Tomlinson. I’m the restaurant manager.” 

Louis extends his hand to Niall, who narrows his eyes and says, “Where’s your uniform?” 

It’s then that Harry allows himself to look at Louis in his dark grey sweatpants, oversized black hoodie, and Vans. He feels the urge to move closer, so he makes himself take one step back and then another until his back hits the edge of the bar. 

“Look, I’ve got my license. My uniform was supposed to be shipped here.” Louis pulls out his ID and Harry makes a show of looking, not that he needs to. This is the sort of thing that would happen to him. 

Their introductions are interrupted by the arrival of the rest of the back of the house employees and Harry takes the opportunity to put as much distance between himself and Louis as he can. It takes a good hour for it to settle with Harry that Louis used his Alpha voice within seconds of seeing him and when it finally does, he takes a break from showing Niall the prep cook area and leaves him to it. 

Harry stalks through the kitchen to the office in the back, only to find the door shut and locked when he gets there. He fumbles with his keys, but finds the right one quick enough, sliding it into the lock and throwing the door open, only to slam it shut again. 

“I was changing! My uniform!” Louis yells through the door and Harry cringes, holding his fists up to his eyes. It seems unfair that this is what his life has become. It doesn’t matter. It was an accident. He didn’t even see anything. 

The door opens again and before Louis can control the conversation or his scent can cloud Harry’s senses, Harry says, “It doesn’t matter. It was an accident. I didn’t even see anything. The point is— The reason I even came back here looking for you is that you used your Alpha voice on me and that is completely unacceptable.”

“Look, Harry, I’m sorry, okay? I had to think fast. I saw your chef coat and it all clicked together in my head and I could tell you hadn’t gotten there yet, so I stopped you the only way I knew how.” Louis looks around, even though they’re behind the closed office door, and lowers his voice. “I thought you’d regret it if you started shouting about how I’m the guy you paid to bond you. Wind up losing the job we bonded for in the first place.”

“Well, obviously I can see that now, but— _Never again._ I don’t care what your reasons are.” Harry whispers fervently, fingers pressing against his bondmark, breathing through his mouth to try and stay focused. “We’re only bound here. Not here.” Harry lays his hand over his heart. “You’re _not_ my Alpha. I don’t even _want_ an Alpha.” 

“Yes, well.” Louis coughs and moves to stand behind the desk, and Harry notices his uniform for the first time. Similar to Harry’s and the rest of the kitchen staff’s, but instead of a chef coat, Louis’ uniform top is a tunic made of a thinner, lighter material with a belt that ties on the side. “We had an agreement to ignore each other if we ever ran into each other, but I felt like that went out the window when you screamed for Niall. And clearly that’s not going to work for us now. So, I… I’d like to defer to you here, if that’s alright.” 

“You’d like to defer to me?” Harry takes a half step back, rubbing at the crease between his eyebrows. 

“What are your thoughts? How do you think we should handle this?” Louis asks, pulling out his chair and sitting down behind the desk. 

Harry lowers himself into the chair across from him. There isn’t much they can do. “We keep up the lie. It’s not like I knew you before. Don’t know shit about you now. No one’s asked about my bond so far, which to be honest, pisses me off. I—”

“That’s my job actually. I’m supposed to do that.”

A shiver travels through Harry at the thought of Louis inspecting his own mark and Harry plants his feet on the ground, pushing his chair backwards as hard as he can. 

“Not that I— I mean, I don’t need to see it. Wouldn’t have asked to see it.”

“Oh…” Harry bites his lip and lifts his hand, touching his fingertips to his neck before he realizes what he’s doing. “Okay, um… Good then. That’s good. Just… Let’s try to work together. The bond is tenuous anyway, right?”

“Right.” Louis scratches at his beard and looks away.

“So, we let it fade as planned. The bond will dissolve sometime in June—”

“June seventeenth is the full moon.”

“The bond will be gone then. We’ll just be coworkers. It’ll be fine.”

“Sure. Yeah. Listen…” Louis taps the list of job openings for the front of the house. “I have a lot of applications to get through, so if you don’t mind?”

“Oh, right. Sorry.” 

With the office door closed and Louis on the other side, his scent is less noticeable. It blends with everything else in the kitchen, dispersing in the air, and the slight tightening in his chest loosens. Harry goes back to work feeling only a bit better since Louis promised not to use his Alpha voice again, but a promise doesn’t really mean anything coming from someone he doesn’t even know. Especially considering that that someone is an Alpha. 

The restaurant grand opening is set for Saturday and all of the equipment is up and running. Harry’s kitchen crew is handling everything well so far and he’s pleased. It’s not his first restaurant opening, but it’s different knowing that the responsibility rests solely on his shoulders. Later in the afternoon, once Louis is busy in the dining room, Harry unlocks the office and sits down behind their shared desk. 

Less intense without him in the room, Louis’ scent floats in and out, mostly hanging in the background behind the pheromone neutralizer. While Niall runs through the menu with the rest of the kitchen staff, Harry starts work on his plans for the spring and summer seasonal menu. Being a corporate restaurant means a lot less freedom to experiment in the kitchen, but it also means that every head chef running one of the kitchens gets to offer their contributions to the new menus. Executive chefs at the corporate office then compile the new menus from those contributions. It’s Harry’s first shot, not that he expects anything, and maybe an appetizer he creates will make it onto the menu, but he’s excited just to have the opportunity. Especially considering that, at one point, he didn’t think he’d be able to continue working as a chef.

Three years ago Harry presented as an Omega. 

He was twenty-four at the time and had finally settled with the idea that he was going to be a late presenting Beta rather than the Alpha everyone always said he’d be, and he was actually fine with it, never having fit in with any Alphas. He’d even made an appointment for the following Wednesday to see his doctor to have some tests done to be sure, but he wasn’t worried. 

It seemed like it would be much easier to eventually find a mate as a Beta than as an Alpha who liked getting fucked as much as he liked to be the one doing the fucking. And since all of his friends were Omegas and Betas anyway, nothing would have to change. He knew for a fact that presenting as an Alpha would be an instant end to some of those friendships and he couldn’t even blame them. 

It was a hot summer night, air humid and heavy, and Harry and Zayn had been at work for what felt like days. All night, Harry found himself using any excuse to rush to the walk-in freezer in the back of the kitchen and cool off, occasionally running into another employee who had the same idea. 

When they left work, Harry pulled his chef coat and t-shirt off before he got halfway across the parking lot and tossed them into the back seat of Zayn’s car, ignoring his complaints about Harry getting sweat on the upholstery of the passenger seat. They were only on the road for a little while when Zayn reached over and laid a hand on Harry’s bare chest, flinching and pulling his hand back. 

“What are your days off this week?” Zayn tapped his fingers on the steering wheel and glanced over at Harry.

“Tuesday and Wednesday, like usual. Why?”

“Okay, so, um… I think you might…” Zayn sighed and said, “We’ll talk about it at home.”

“Something important?” Harry fanned himself with his hands, then adjusted the air conditioning vent, but it didn’t seem to help. 

Zayn hummed and nodded and as soon as they were behind the locked door of their apartment, he led Harry to the bathroom and started the shower. 

“You’re going into heat, Harry.”

Harry frowned and started to disagree, but Zayn shook his head.

“No use arguing. You feel how hot you are. Horny too, I bet.” Zayn grabbed hold of Harry’s cock through the fabric of his pants and ran his thumb over the zipper, smiling smugly when Harry bucked into his hand. “Just… Since you’re not on suppressants or anything, it’ll probably last a week and it’ll be a little rougher for you than any heats you’ll have later on, once you start meds.”

“I don’t… What?” Harry stuck his hand into the shower spray to check the temperature, but it felt too warm so he tried to turn the hot water knob, only to find that it was already in the off position.

“We can talk after. Nothing’s going to make much sense now anyway. Take a shower.” Zayn backed out into the hallway and pointed at the running water. “Get in. Cool off.”

Because it seemed like the easiest thing to do, Harry followed instructions and climbed into the shower. That he forgot to take his pants off was his first clue that something was wrong. Though it’s possible that there were a lot of clues prior to that and Harry just missed them. 

Peeling off his sopping wet trousers and underwear was a struggle and as soon as he got them over his bum, Harry sat down in the tub to pull them the rest of the way off, then opened the shower curtain and tossed his wet clothes into the sink. 

Cold water rained down over him, but hardly made a difference. Curled up with his arms around his knees or laying flat in his back in the tub with his legs spread and feet propped up on the wall, either way Harry was just as uncomfortable, so he stood up again, figuring he’d just wash and get out. The problem arose after he’d shampooed and conditioned and washed almost his entire body, when Harry reached around to clean himself. 

“Fuck. Oh god…” Harry ran just the tips of his fingers between his cheeks and when he lifted them up to look, they were covered in a viscous, slippery substance. Slick. 

Harry ripped back the shower curtain, stumbling out of the bathroom and towards the kitchen, searching for something or someone, but unsure what or who. 

“Babe.” Zayn held both arms out and stepped closer. “Hug or you too far gone?”

“Hug.” Harry pouted and let Zayn hold him for a few seconds while he whined, “I’m too old for this shit. Why is this happening to me?” Zayn was the best and didn’t even complain about Harry getting him all wet and dripping water all over the kitchen floor.

“Nature? DNA evolving because of the widespread use of pheromone dampeners and hormonal birth control? You’re in hell and this is only the first circle? Take your pick.”

“Fuck you.” Harry wiggled out of Zayn’s embrace and picked up one of the glasses of ice water beside the sink, chugging it down.

Zayn snorted and said, “You’ll probably be asking me to in a few days.”

“Very funny.” Harry grabbed the second glass and started to drink it.

“Nah, no joke. But I won’t, so don’t worry. You know I don’t fuck other Os.”

“Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. What do I do? I don’t know—”

“I’ll be here. Don’t worry. First thing tomorrow, I’ll let the restaurant know you need heat leave—”

“Don’t! Don’t tell them that.”

“They’ll find out eventually. And how else am I supposed to get you a week off?”

“Fine.” Harry crossed his arms and immediately uncrossed them, his own skin too hot to touch. “How long do I have?”

“You’re not dying. _How long do I have?_ Honestly.”

“Well, it fucking feels like it, alright?” Uselessly, Harry tried to wipe the sweat from his brow. “This is unexpected! I’m completely unprepared!”

“Breathe.” Zayn pointedly raised his eyebrows and waited for Harry to take a few calming breaths. “You’ll be fine. I’ll bring you food and water. I’ve got a box full of toys that you can use—all cleaned and sanitized. Unless, um, you have someone who—”

“No. None of those guys are… Just, no.” He hadn’t had a boyfriend in years. Hadn’t wanted one. No strings attached hookups and the occasional friends with benefits were all he’d been interested in. And it’s not as though he had any Alpha friends, other than Liam. Not that he’d want to sleep with an Alpha anyway. 

“Alright. I’ve got some extra heat leave saved up since mine have been getting shorter lately, so I’ll be here. Okay?”

Harry nodded and quietly agreed. “Thank you.”

Zayn knew exactly what Harry needed without asking. After initially leaving him alone with his assortment of heat toys, Zayn made sure Harry periodically cleaned himself up and sent him to the bathroom while he changed Harry’s sheets, held a straw to his mouth so he’d drink, and fed him cut up fruit and yogurt mixed with granola before leaving Harry to get off alone again. Somehow Zayn sensed that Harry’s first heat was just as much a mindfuck and that with every fake knot he took, he cried, mourning the life that he always thought he’d have. 

That heat was brutal and he hardly remembers it. 

But Harry’s had two since then, one each year in the fall when the restaurant slows down. Thanks to his quarterly suppressant shot, his heats are mild and he’s aware and lucid throughout the week, actually able to take care of himself outside the bedroom as well. Inside the bedroom, he gets off about half a dozen times a day at first, tapering down until he spends most of the last day sleeping and cleaning. 

It’s been an adjustment, living as an Omega, but it isn’t all bad. And if he’s honest with himself, he’d rather be an Omega than an Alpha. The pheromone suppressants they usually take cause their ruts to be similar in intensity to Harry’s mild heats and Harry can’t imagine getting through a week being that horny without getting fucked. 

Harry drops his pen on the desk and practically leaps out of the chair, leaving the office door wide open and crossing through the kitchen to the back door, which he slams open, taking in lung fulls of fresh air. Citrus of some sort. Vanilla, cocoa, and some citrus fruit that he can’t name because the very second he thought about an Alpha in rut, he thought of Louis, and it suddenly became much more important to clear his head than to separate the layers of Louis’ scent. 

Leaning against the warm brick wall of the alley behind the restaurant, Harry tips his head back, breathing in and out through his nose, and it helps some. As soon as he pulls it together enough to go back in, he goes straight for the coffee maker and brews a fresh pot, standing beside it and inhaling the scent of ground coffee beans. He dumps cream and sugar in his cup and stops by the office to grab his notes before he goes looking for Niall.

Ω

The restaurant opening goes smoothly and though Harry can’t stop stress sweating, nothing major goes wrong, and at the end of the evening when he’s sitting behind the desk going over the sales receipts and Louis is doing the same from the other side, he’s proud. They did well. 

Straightening the final stack of receipt paper in front of him, Harry hopes he sounds sincere when he says, “Congratulations, Louis.” 

“Oh, um, thanks. Thank you. You too, obviously. Food, timing, presentation. Was all perfect.” Louis clears his throat and stands, grabbing his coat off the back of his chair. “You heading home?”

“Yeah, yeah. Niall’s…” Harry points to the security camera feed for the bar. “Niall’s waiting at the bar.” 

Harry follows Louis out of the office and they walk the kitchen together, doing the final check to be sure everything is right before the go over the front of the house. After double checking that the front door is locked, Niall leads the way through the restaurant and holds open the back door to the alley, waiting for Harry and then Louis, who flips the lights off and locks the door.

Niall wedges himself between Harry and Louis when they hit the sidewalk and for a split second, Harry wants to growl. As soon as he suppresses the urge, he’s thankful for Niall’s presence instead. Being alone with Louis is something he needs to adjust to, but it’s nice to have a buffer. “Good first night, Chef.” 

“Yeah, I think so. You did well.” Harry pulls his scarf tighter around his neck. 

“Thanks, man.” Niall bumps their shoulders together and steers Harry down the sidewalk towards the subway entrance they usually use. 

“See you two tomorrow.” Louis claps a hand on Niall’s shoulder and Harry side steps away from them both, pulling his hat down over his ears. Jerking his thumb over his shoulder, Louis says, “Meeting someone for drinks.”

“Bye!” Niall shouts and Harry hurries down the stairs, feeling slightly warmer, but still sticky with _restaurant_ all over him, tired, and annoyed.

The tinny voice in the speaker calls out their stop and they stand, exiting as soon as the doors slide open. It’s not a long walk from the subway to their apartment and Harry lets Niall have first shower since he waits every night for Harry to walk home. 

Ω

The first month that the restaurant’s open is a little bumpy, but there aren’t any major hiccups, and Harry and Louis actually get along for the most part. Valentine’s Day will be the first major night for the restaurant and almost as soon as they start taking reservations for that night, they’re full. 

The day before, they start adding pheromone dampeners to the circulation system. As an Omega, it’s not something that Harry thinks he’d ever do, but some of the Os he knows—including Zayn—will take a heat inducer for things like Valentine’s Day or anniversaries, and those aren’t perfectly predictable, so it’s almost inevitable that someone will go into heat in the restaurant. 

When Harry was fairly new to cooking, he heard a rumor that on a previous Valentine’s Day, an Alpha who wasn’t on suppressants went into rut in the middle of the rush because he’d taken a rut inducer—which are even less predictable than heat inducers—and started trying to mount his dinner date in the dining room.

Maybe it’s beginner’s luck, but Harry actually hopes not because he’d really like every Valentine’s Day to go as smoothly as this one has so far. Everyone on staff is exhausted from the constant ebb and flow of customers, and the celebratory bottle of champagne that they put aside to split after work, ended up getting sold to the last table of the night, so almost everyone left to go to the bar down the street for a drink.

The entire kitchen has been broken down and cleaned, only one row of lights is still on in the back, and Harry just finished the last thing he needed to do in the office. He trades places with Louis, who’s been hanging out in the dining room with Niall, and Jess, the Omega server whose table they’re waiting on. Louis heads to the office as Harry makes himself comfortable at the bar.

A growl catches Harry’s attention and he whips his head towards the table in the corner, watching them warily. They’ve been there for hours at this point, their drinks are all empty, and the table is clear, but they’ve been alright as far as customers go, so Harry doesn’t want to rock the boat. Especially when Louis hasn’t seemed worried about the late table. 

The couple is A/O, which Harry mentally corrects to O/A, and even with the pheromone dampeners they’ve been pumping in, Harry can smell the Alpha, and he smells annoyed. But annoyed could mean anything, so Harry is vigilant, watching TV and keeping one eye on the couple in the corner. A few minutes later, the Alpha growls louder and Harry’s out of his seat in a split second, crossing the room.

“Is there something wrong, sir?” Harry tips his head down, much taller than the man when he’s sitting. 

“Nothing. We were just leaving.” The man stands up and reaches across the table for his date’s arm and she jerks back in the seat. “Time to go, Omega.” 

The woman looks to Harry before she starts to stand and Harry asks her, “Do you want to go with him?”

“That’s none of your business,” the Alpha squints at Harry’s chest and slowly reads off of Harry’s chef coat, “Chef Harry Styles. _Omega._ Get out of my way.”

“Fine.” Harry takes a step to the side, glancing down at the Omega woman who looks up at him and shakes her head slightly. Blocking her with his body, Harry crosses his arms and spreads his feet apart. 

“Get up, girl,” the man’s Alpha voice is rough and unpleasant, but then he turns it on Harry. “Let her go.”

Harry frowns and steadies himself. “No. You’ve had two bottles of champagne. And you just tried to use your Alpha voice to control a perfect stranger. We’re calling you a cab. You’re lucky we’re not calling the police.” Glancing back over his shoulder, Harry catches Niall’s eye where he stands behind the bar, and calls out, “Two cabs, Ni!”

“Fuck you!” The Alpha shoves Harry’s shoulder, but Harry rolls his body with it, and lifts his fists, trying to channel every boxing lesson he’s ever had. 

The door behind the bar swings open and Louis bellows, “Back the fuck off!” 

Still facing the Alpha, Harry looks over just in time to watch Louis vault over the bar like an Olympic gymnast and sprint towards him. But the customer puts some space between himself and Harry and Louis slows down before he runs him over. 

With his hand tight around the man’s bicep, Louis steers him to the exit where Niall opens the door so Louis can usher him outside. 

Niall looks back at Harry and asks, “You guys okay?” waiting for Harry’s nod before he follows Louis outside. 

The woman is fine, all things considered. She explains that it was only their second date, that she didn’t really know the man that well, and that she was glad that he got loud so that Harry could intervene because she didn’t know what to do otherwise. She waits with Harry for Louis and Niall to put the Alpha in a taxi, and a few minutes later she climbs into a second taxi with Niall, who offers to escort her home. 

Niall shuts the taxi door and Louis and Harry both wave at the back of the cab as it drives off. As soon as they’re back inside the restaurant, Harry loses it. “I cannot believe you jumped over the fucking bar, you interfering asshole!”

Louis reaches up to lock the top of the doors, then drops down into a squat to lock the bottom. When he stands back up and locks the main middle lock, Louis says, “What was I supposed to do when I looked up and saw what was going on on the security feed?”

“I was handling it, Louis. You only jumped in because I’m an Omega.”

“No, I just needed to help. Would’ve done the same if you were an Alpha.”

“That’s bullshit.” Harry spins on his heel and pushes through the kitchen door, heading for the office to grab his things. Bundling up quickly, Harry is out the door again, pulling his coat on as he walks straight for the back of the kitchen. The heavy metal door is always so loud at night, even more so when Harry opens it with both of his hands and a lot of his anger.

Tugging his gloves on, Harry turns right at the end of the alley, and half a block later Louis falls into step beside him. “Don’t worry. I locked up.”

“Whatever.” Harry walks a little faster, shoving his hands in his pockets, and hunching into the wind.

“Yeah, okay.” 

“No.” Harry moves out of the way of foot traffic and turns to face Louis. “No. You’re fucking lying if you say you’d have acted the same way if it’d been an Alpha dealing with that guy instead of me.”

“I’m not lying.” Shivering, Louis rubs his hands over his arms. “Can we keep walking? I’m freezing.”

“I get on the subway right up there, so, no.”

“I’m actually going that way. It’s late and—”

“Whatever.” Harry takes off again, chewing his lip, hoping that Louis will take a different train. When he sees Louis next to him in his peripheral vision, Harry says, “Liar.”

“It’s not— I didn’t _lie._ I just… We said two different things.”

“Right.” Harry swipes his card and wishes as hard as he can that Louis’ card won’t work, but he hears him come through right behind him. 

“We did.” Louis stays at Harry’s left side, slightly behind him, and it’s confusing and difficult for Harry to walk and pay attention at the same time, but Louis is quiet until they get to Harry’s favorite place to wait for the train. “You said ‘if it’d been _an_ Alpha dealing with that guy _instead of me’_ and I said that I’d have done the same if _you_ were an Alpha.”

“It’s the same. You just said the same thing twice, basically.”

“It’s not. I wouldn’t have done it for just _any_ Alpha. I said if _you_ were an Alpha. It’s not… I…”

“Do you think that’s better? So it’s just me then, that’s incapable? I could kick your ass.”

Louis snorts. “You think so?”

“Yeah. I do.” 

“Well…” Louis pulls his beanie off and rakes his fingers through his hair, looking at Harry quickly before looking away. “It’d never be a fair fight.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Harry growls low in his throat. As much as he wants to prove himself right, it would be a shitty way to end the night if he wound up in jail. 

The train pulls in and Louis follows Harry on, grabbing the bar beside him. “I’d never hurt you, Harry. That’s what it’s supposed to mean.” 

“I don’t get you, man. Like, do you think it feels good, knowing that you think I can’t handle myself?”

“Oh, I… I’m sorry.” Louis switches his hold on the bar so that he can face Harry directly. “It’s not… Do you understand that it has nothing to do with me thinking you can’t take care of yourself or with you being an Omega? It’s the bond. I can’t… I can’t _not_ help you.”

Harry sighs and lets his head drop down, six weeks in. And so many to go that Harry refuses to count them. “Can you at least try not to act all super hero about it?”

“Super hero?” 

“I mean, you flung yourself over the bar and like, sprinted at me. Super hero, lunatic, same thing.”

“Thanks.” Louis rolls his eyes and Harry grins at the slight flush to his cheeks. “I’ll try to refrain.”

“I guess that’ll have to do. June can’t come fast enough.” Harry closes his eyes and lets his body swing back and forth with the motion of the train. “Hey, so what about meeting your friends or whatever it is you usually do? I didn’t know you took this train.”

“I don’t…” Louis sighs and looks up at Harry through his eyelashes, then he blinks and looks away. “I’m not meeting anyone. I just wait for the next train so I don’t have to ride with you.”

“Nice.”

“Not like that. I can’t…” Lowering his voice, Louis says, “Harry, being on the train surrounded by all of these people, all of their smells should be distracting, but all I can smell is you. And all I want to do is scent you, like, cover you in my scent, so you’ll smell like me and not any of them.”

“Jesus.” Harry keeps his head down, hoping that it’ll help hide his thoughts from Louis. That Alpha customer didn’t smell good at all, and at the time, a vague notion that he could just ask Louis to scent him to make him feel better had floated through his mind, but he’d dismissed it. But now, hearing Louis say it out loud, Harry wants it. “I’m gonna just…” 

Louis nods and Harry weaves his way through the car to the far side where he finds a spot between two other Omegas, and he stays there until the doors open at his stop. Halfway up the stairs, he can smell Louis getting closer, so when he gets to the top of the steps he moves out of the way and waits.

“Are you following me?” 

“Nope. Just going home, Harry.” Louis keeps walking and Harry has to hurry to catch up, inhaling deeply through his nose and catching a tendril of another note of Louis’ scent. Louis looks back over his shoulder. “Are you walking behind me on purpose?”

“Aren’t I supposed to?”

“Do you do anything you’re supposed to?”

“Some stuff, yeah. No, I was just, um… Your scent. It’s like, really unusual? A lot of different components. So I’ve been trying to parse it out. I was—” Realizing what he’s about to say before he says it, Harry straightens up and puts more space between them, walking directly beside Louis.

Louis’ quiet chuckles finally get to him, and Harry turns, scowling, but he stops and watches Louis instead. It’s dark and cold and the streetlights cast shadows in a million directions, so Harry has to split his attention between not tripping on the sidewalk and studying Louis’ cheekbones. 

“It’s okay, you know.” Louis gently bumps Harry with his elbow. “You’re allowed to find my scent interesting or whatever. I mean I just told you that I can’t ride the subway with you without wanting to make you stink like me, so… I think we’re in a unique situation. Most quick-bonds aren’t like this.”

“Right. Yeah.” Harry nods and chews on the inside of his cheek. Somehow he’d forgotten that this is something that Louis has done before, maybe more than a few times, and he wonders if every Omega he’s bonded has been obsessed with his scent, or if it’s just the proximity to Louis that is fucking with his head. 

“This is me.” Louis points to the building a few doors ahead and Harry wonders if Louis will insist on walking him home. “See you tomorrow? You work, right?”

“Yeah. See you tomorrow, Louis.” Harry waves as Louis disappears inside his building and he hurries home, hoping he’ll beat Niall to the shower tonight. Vanilla, cocoa, some unidentifiable citrus fruit, and Hickory. So far. There’s more there that Harry can’t unwrap from the rest of Louis’ scent and he’s curious what the unifying basenote will be, if he ever figures it out. 

Ω

Spring just shows up one day. Harry goes from wearing a long sleeve t-shirt under his chef coat, along with his heavy winter coat, scarf, hat, and gloves, to unbuttoning his chef coat as soon as he leaves the restaurant at night, and wishing he could remove it completely and clean up the restaurant wearing his undershirt like Niall and Louis do. But showing Louis’ bondmark at work feels weird, so he doesn’t do it.

Harry has his first appointment for his suppressant shot since coming to the city, and he’s not sure how he’ll feel afterwards, especially taking the subway, so Niall took the day off too. The appointment isn’t until the afternoon, so they sleep late, and Harry makes French toast for breakfast. 

As roommates, they definitely see more of each other than they do of other people, but they don’t usually have days off together; so it’s a nice day. They discuss their apartment and decide they’d like to remain roommates after their lease ends in June, but Harry’d like to look for a different place with a bathtub large enough for him to use during his yearly heat. 

The clinic where Harry gets his suppressant shot is packed with people and despite the dampeners, the mix of their pheromones and the artificial scent of the overused air freshener gives him a headache before he gets called back to the exam room. They give him something for the headache after they stick the needle in his bum, and Harry is increasingly glad that Niall tagged along with him. 

One of the side effects of Harry’s suppressant shot is a few hours of increased arousal starting around six to eight hours after the injection. Prior to the bonding he would go out looking to hook up, but when they leave the clinic, he’s nauseated from the combination of the pain medication and the suppressant shot, and the sway of the subway doesn’t help. Niall keeps his arm around Harry, pulling him in close to his side, and letting Harry sniff the side of his neck. 

As soon as they get out of the subway, Harry detaches himself from Niall’s side, apologizing. “But thanks. I hope it isn’t too weird to say that you smell nice. Grapefruit.”

“Yeah?” Niall wrinkles his nose as if he’ll be able to smell his own Beta scent. 

“Very light, but clean.” Harry stumbles to his bedroom, giggling at himself, and falling onto his bed fully clothed with the door wide open. He falls asleep as soon as he hits the mattress, and Niall apparently covers him with a blanket and shuts the door at some point, but he doesn’t move from his position, starfished across the bed on his stomach, until past dark. 

Harry wakes up hungry and feeling disgusting. He should’ve showered before napping. There’s nothing in the kitchen that he wants to eat other than an orange, and he doesn’t want to cook for once, so he knocks on Niall’s door. They decide to go have dinner at their restaurant.

After a quick shower, Harry dresses up for the first time since coming to the city. He ties the pussy bow of his pink silk top and tucks it into the waist of his black-on-black floral wide leg pants, pulling on his favorite black boots. 

Looking in his mirror, Harry bursts out laughing. It’s Niall’s lucky night apparently, since Harry’s dressed like they’re on their third date and he’s planning to go home with him. 

It’s funny and it’s not. Harry isn’t going to sleep with Niall for a host of reasons, but even if he did want to, he couldn’t. Because he’s bonded. Niall and everyone else thinks that he’s waiting patiently for his bondmate and fiance to come visit and eventually move to the city too. 

There’s a small crowd of people waiting to be seated and Harry catches Louis’ eye from where he and Niall stand in the far corner near the door, but Louis doesn’t seem to see him, or maybe he doesn’t recognize Harry out of his uniform with his long hair down. Though that _is_ how Harry looked when they bonded. Of course, maybe he doesn’t remember that either. Harry huffs when Jess waves them over and leads them to a booth in the back. 

It’s a lovely non-date. Niall’s a great friend. Louis doesn’t stop by the table to talk to them until they’re on dessert, and then he just says hi as he’s walking by. He barely looks at Harry, in fact, he doesn’t meet Harry’s gaze until he’s about to walk away from the table.

They’re a beautiful blue, and most of the time Harry won’t let himself look at them, but it’s different when it’s the first time Louis has looked him in the eye all night. Harry doesn’t want to blink. 

“Come back to the office before you go?” Louis raises his eyebrows and Harry nods. And when he blinks and looks again, Louis is walking away and Harry can’t do anything but stare at his back. And bum. And legs. Fuck.

The nap threw him off, but he’s right at seven hours since his suppressant shot.

Tipping his glass back, Harry finishes his wine in one swallow, and stands up. “Meet you up front? I’m going to see what Louis wants.” 

The restaurant doesn’t stop seating for another hour, but it’s slow tonight. The large party that was waiting when Harry and Niall arrived is clearing out now, and there are only a few other occupied tables, all of them already eating or finished eating, so Harry does a quick walk-through in the kitchen, saying hello to everyone before knocking lightly on the office door.

Louis is behind the desk, going over the closed out receipts from the servers who’ve already finished for the night. For a moment, Harry stands in the doorway and watches him, but when he doesn’t look up, Harry steps inside the rest of the way and closes the door, sitting down to wait in the chair opposite Louis. 

“Oh, is that—” Harry reaches across the desk and taps the top of the menu. 

“Yeah, it came earlier. Didn’t think you’d want to wait until tomorrow.” Once again, Louis doesn’t look at him, just keeps going over the same receipt, and Harry’s not an idiot. 

“When do we start serving the new menu?” Harry picks it up and opens it, scanning it quickly. None of his dishes were chosen. 

“You okay?” Louis asks and finally looks up, sharp teeth biting his lower lip. 

Harry crosses his legs and leans back in his chair, opening the menu again. “Yeah. I didn’t really expect anything since it’s my first time submitting, but it still sucks.”

“Next time, right?” Louis smiles and Harry can only smile back, worried that if he says anything it’ll come out a jumbled mix of thanks and praise and begging because it’s hitting him hard now, the arousal stemming from his suppressant shot earlier that day. 

“Right. Yeah.” Harry scoots his chair back and stands up, dropping the menu onto the desk. “Niall’s waiting, so I—”

“You should be careful.”

“About what?” 

“Well, I mean, _I_ know that you and Niall are roommates, but other people might assume something’s going on between you. And since you’re supposed to be bonded to someone else…”

“Are you seriously trying to say that bonded people can’t have friends? Or is it just Omegas? I’ve already had to give up dating because of this bond.”

“No, no, it’s not—”

“Are you _jealous?”_

“I… I… I might be.” Louis scratches his chin and stands up behind the desk. “It’s hard to see you with someone else. Platonically it’s fine, I’m not bothered at all. But tonight you look like _that_ and you smell so— It _looks_ like a date, even though it’s not, and it’s confusing.”

“It’s Niall.”

“The bond… My tie to it is stronger because I’ve been bonded before.”

Harry scowls. He’s never heard of anything like that before. “Maybe you should’ve thought about that before bonding someone for money, Louis. It’s not my problem. Niall’s my roommate and he’s waiting for me right now, so…” It’s stupid, but Harry’s feeling a little reckless thanks to the wine and the nap and the side effects from his shot. And he likes the idea of Louis being jealous. “I’m going to let him take me home.”

Louis coughs, but it sounds like a cross between a whine and a growl, and Harry can’t stop pushing Louis’ buttons.

“What is it?” Harry drops his hands to his hips and cocks them to the side.

“You’re turned on. I can smell it. And you—”

“That’s none of your business, Louis.” Harry shakes his head and the room is flooded with Louis’ scent tinged with jealousy. It’ll be all over his clothes and in his hair now. “What the fuck?”

“I'm sorry!” Louis drops down into his chair and covers his face with his hands. “I’m sorry! I didn’t mean— God, this is so fucking embarrassing. I’ve never scented a whole room before. Promise I’m not… I’m more in control usually. Working with you is tough, okay?”

“Right. Well. I’m going home. Try not to cry about it.” Harry pastes on a smile to say goodbye to everyone on his way back through the kitchen and dining room, but once he’s outside with Niall on the sidewalk, he lets it fall. 

The scent of Louis laced with jealousy lingers around him, blocking the smell of everyone else on the subway, and following him home. He doesn’t bother trying to wash it off, and goes straight to his bedroom, forcing himself to take his clothes off properly, making himself wait; a punishment of sorts for knowing for a fact he’s about to masturbate to Louis’ scent. 

A little slick is all he needs to get himself off with two fingers in his ass and a tight fist around his dick, and he lets himself fall asleep blanketed in Louis’ scent mixed with his own cocktail of pheromones. When he wakes up the next morning, he lays in bed, still breathing Louis in. Vanilla, cocoa, hickory, and the mysterious citrus scent. Bergamot. 

Ω

With summer approaching, Harry starts to get excited about the prospect of finally being unbonded. No one’s asked about his mark. There’s a good chance he’ll be free to start dating. Or hooking up. It’s not like he’s going to be picky. He wants to ask Louis his opinion, whether he thinks Harry can get away without a bondmark now, and he feels a little apprehensive about asking, but he figures it’s probably just because of the bond. 

Louis is behind the bar, but there’s another man on the other side of the bar clutching a newborn baby to his chest. As soon as Harry opens the door, they stop talking, and Harry’s clearly interrupting, so he apologizes and backs out of the room.

The other man, an Omega, has a faded mark from a broken bond and Harry hates that he’s studied his own mark so closely because there’s no denying that they’re the same. Harry wonders if the baby is Louis’, but it must be. Any trepidation Harry might have felt about the bond ending evaporates. 

It’s busy enough that Harry doesn’t see much of Louis, but he thinks about him on and off for most of the night, and he doesn’t know why, but all night he’s been carrying around this little ball of anger and it grows when he remembers the other Omega wearing Louis’ mark. A few hours later, Harry follows Louis back into the kitchen to the office, half of his mind still focused on his own bondmark and how much lighter it looks now that they’re just weeks away from the bond dissipating. 

“Did you get the email I sent you?” Louis asks and Harry shakes his head. Leaning over the desk, Louis opens his laptop, spinning it around so Harry can look. “Some secret diner thing. Just a rumor, I think. But in the next month, there could be someone from corporate coming in to complain about everything they order.”

“Really?” Harry holds his hand to his mouth. He’s never dealt with anything like that before.

“No, Harry, I mean, they usually do complain about something just to see how everyone handles it. But I wouldn’t worry. Their whole point is to not stand out.” Louis closes his eyes and pinches the bridge of his nose. He looks sad. “They’ll let us know that night, right after. So it’s over before you know it’s started.”

“What if they come after the bond is gone? You said in the next month? We have less than two weeks left before it dissipates.”

“They’re not going to check your mark.” Louis shakes his head and drops down into the chair behind the desk. 

“Is it another thousand dollars for you to bite me again?” Harry’s eyes go wide at his own words, but he doesn’t want to take them back, even as shocked as he is at his own sudden change of heart. The anger he felt earlier is easier to pin down now. Jealousy.

When Louis finishes sputtering, he shakes his head. “You don’t want to do that.”

“I don’t want to lose my job, Louis. At least think about it. ”

Harry wonders if it’s obvious to Louis that he’s jealous. If he smells like it. He must. If Harry could smell it on Louis, it makes sense that it’d be the same. 

A week later, Harry asks him again. This time he mentions that he and Niall are thinking of looking for another apartment and that he’d rather not have to jump through hoops being unbonded, especially with a visible bond scar. He knows Louis is going to agree when he doesn’t bother telling Harry he could easily cover the bite mark. 

The closer they get to the end of the quick-bond, the more anxious Harry becomes, because Louis hasn’t told him yes yet. He keeps saying he’ll think about it. Harry doesn’t tell him that he and Niall decided not to move after all. 

In addition to the anxiety, as the end of the bond approaches, Harry is increasingly horny. Nothing nearly like his heats, but he just _wants_ more than usual. It’s not really a bad way to live, as long as he gets some extra time alone every day, but it makes him miss the ease with which he used to be able to pick someone up and take them home. 

At the end of the night, after everyone’s gone, and Niall’s waiting for Harry in the bar, Louis leans across the desk and says, “I’ll quick-bond you again, if you really think it’ll help you.”

Harry lifts his fists into the air, cheering quietly and a cackle bursts out of Louis. Blushing, Harry pushes his chair back away from the desk a bit, hoping that out of the lamplight it won’t be noticeable. “A thousand?”

“I don’t want your money, Harry.”

“You— Why?”

Louis shrugs one shoulder and says, “We’re friends. It’s different.”

They talk it over _like adults_ and decide that they’ll do it at Harry’s apartment. Because the first thing Harry wants to know after Louis agrees is how similar the experiences will be. If he’s going to be virtually incapacitated by a fucking erection, then he needs to plan accordingly. He can’t imagine Niall helping him home like that. But he doesn’t mention any of that to Louis. He just asks if Louis thinks it’ll be the same and Louis says he figures it’ll be less intense. 

When Harry asks him if he thinks he’ll make it home okay, Louis laughs and says, “It’s just a boner, Harry. I can walk a few blocks.” Harry can’t look at him for the rest of the conversation. 

It’s possible that Harry should feel worse about lying to Niall, but when he easily agrees to clear out for two days because Harry’s fiance is coming to visit, Harry doesn’t feel badly at all. He just hopes that no one notices anything since he and Louis have both scheduled to take off work the day after. 

The night they plan to do it, Niall forgets and waits at the bar for a little while before Harry sees him in the security feed and tells him to go. He flips the barstools up and Harry unlocks the front door for him.

“Have a good time with your fiance, Chef. You meeting him somewhere?” 

“Oh.” Harry shakes his head, trying to think fast. “No, um, he’s meeting me at our place. Louis is walking me home.” 

A chair clatters to the floor, drawing their attention to Louis, who picks it up and places it back on the table that he apparently knocked it off of. He points at the open door and waves at Niall. “Have a good night!” As soon as Harry shuts the door, Louis locks it again. 

On the subway, Harry sits as far away from Louis as he can, but it doesn’t seem to matter because Harry can still smell him. Then, on the walk to Harry’s apartment, they keep some distance between them and Harry tries to keep a clear head, but it’s difficult. He wonders if Louis is nervous too and if it’s possible to feel any of that through the bond. Quick-bonds aren’t supposed to work that way, but it’s not as if they’ve been extensively studied. 

“Where do you want to do this?” Louis asks quietly and Harry jumps a little, lost in his own world, trying to understand how he feels so out of control and so at ease about it at the same time. 

Harry flattens his hand to his stomach, trying to calm the arousal stirring inside. “Bedroom, I think. That okay?”

“You want to lie down?”

“No, no. I, um… I’d rather stand. Like last time.” 

“You shouldn’t’ve told Niall I was walking you home.”

“I can only lie about one thing at a time, Louis.” 

Louis rolls his eyes and purses his lips and Harry grins, pleased. 

Before the silence between them gets uncomfortable, Louis pulls his shirt off and Harry is reminded that this whole thing takes place half naked and then he remembers his towel from last time and then he has to force himself to think of something else and take off his own shirt. Louis’ smell is stronger and Harry flushes at the hint of arousal in his scent, knowing that his own scent probably has the same edge to it. There’s a softer towel in his bathroom cabinet and Harry makes a mental note to use it to clean up after. 

It’s different right away. Knowing Louis for six months, working with him six or seven days a week, and being friends of a sort. As soon as Harry’s shirtless and standing in front of him, Louis steps up, and Harry almost doesn’t get to look at his body, he’s so close. Louis wraps his arms around Harry the same way he did the first time, one arm around his middle, the other around his shoulder and upper body. When Louis rests his hand on the back of Harry’s neck, he says, “Have to scent you.”

“Yeah.” Harry giggles quietly and closes his eyes. “Forgot again, but yeah. Go ahead.”

Louis slides his fingertips up the back of Harry’s neck and Harry reaches up to let his hair down out of the bun it’s been in all night so that Louis can thread his fingers through it and hold him still for the bite. Standing face to face, chest to chest, Harry blinks his eyes open to see Louis staring back at him, cheeks pink, eyes shining. 

When Harry realizes that Louis has been waiting for him to turn his head and offer his bare neck, he does it, feeling like he might die of embarrassment. As soon as he inhales Louis’ scent, his body relaxes and he’s no longer bothered by the growing erection in his pants. He leans his body forward, pushing into Louis’ space, and Louis tightens his arms around him, twisting Harry’s curls around his fingers and tipping his head to the side. 

It’s odd, really, Harry thinks, while Louis nuzzles against his neck. Everything about Louis’ scent. Because it’s not like Louis smells like all of those things mixed together. Those are just the notes that Harry’s able to pick out. At least they’re all things that Harry likes. Vanilla, basic and therefore one of Harry’s favorite scents. Cocoa, which Harry loves. Bergamot, which Harry ordered into the restaurant to experiment with. Hickory, which Harry may be considering bringing in for the wood burning stove. And now leather. He doesn’t know what to think about that. But Louis’ scent doesn’t smell like any of those things. It just smells _good._

The tip of Louis’ nose drags over the skin of Harry’s neck and he shudders just as Louis bites down. His body continues to tremble, but he doesn’t try to pull away this time, going lax in Louis’ arms. When Louis lets up with his teeth and licks him the first time, Harry moans, and when he tries to turn his head away, Louis holds him still, licking him harder, and Harry moans louder as his body bucks in Louis’ hold. 

It feels so different this time. Harry has no fear at all, alone with Louis in his own bedroom. There’s no doubt in his mind that Louis will bond him and leave just as he said he will. But he’s been hard since the second Louis touched his neck and when his trapped erection accidentally rubs against Louis’ where it’s stuck behind the zipper of his pants, Harry whines, chasing the friction and grinding against Louis.

Harry needs to stop, but the second he tries to slow down and pull his hips away, Louis’ tongue flicks against his skin, and he mutters, “Take what you need, baby.” Pulling Harry closer to him, he fits his thigh between Harry’s legs, and licks over the bite messily before sucking on it until the skin all around it will be purple with bruises. 

That same phantom limb sensation flickers and twists and Harry feels the bond lock into place as he comes in his pants, rutting against Louis’ hip. Louis licks lightly over the fresh wound while Harry rides the aftershocks of his orgasm, then helps him to his bed. 

“It’s nice not to have to rush out.” Harry giggles as he flops back onto the pillows. The come in his pants feels more disgusting now that he’s lying down, so he pops the button and pulls the zipper down.

“Sorry, baby, um… Sorry, Harry. I’ll see you.” Louis grabs his shirt and heads for the door, turning to call back down the hallway, “Come lock the door or I won’t feel right leaving.”

Harry forces himself off the bed and stumbles down the hall, chef pants barely hanging on over his messy briefs. He looks down at himself, but can’t be ashamed. Then he looks at Louis and asks, “Did you get off?”

Louis pulls his shirt back on and adjusts himself in his pants. “Yeah. That okay?”

“Yeah. Just didn’t want you to have to walk home with your dick hard.”

“Lock the door. Drink some water. Bye, Harry.” Louis steps out into the hallway and closes Harry’s apartment door, which Harry locks before pressing his face up against it to watch Louis through the peephole until he walks away. 

Hard in his pants again, Harry digs through the towels until he finds the softest one, carefully wiping his neck and shoulder over and over, then his chest, before folding it up and leaving it on his bed. Harry’s shower lasts long enough for him to wash the restaurant off and clean the come out of his pubes.

For the first time since New Year’s Harry fucks himself with his knotted dildo, but this time his orgasms happen easily, back to back, and he doesn’t stop thinking of Louis the entire time. He comes as he presses down on the new bondmark, face down in a towel soaked in Louis’ scent, imagining Louis knotting him and biting him again and again. 

Harry makes himself stay awake long enough to go to the kitchen to get some water and the ice pack from the freezer, hoping it’ll help stem the bruising around his bondmark. 

When he returns to work a few days later, the mark is more prominent than ever, even though the bruising around it has gone down a good bit. He’s once again thankful for the high collar of his uniform chef coat. 

The secret diner comes in for dinner about a week later, and while Harry doesn’t flaunt his mark, he does stretch his neck and tug at his collar more than is probably necessary. But it’s fine. The staff handle everything well and it’s no different than any other night, until she tells them at the end of the evening, and just like Louis said, it’s already over with at that point. 

Almost everyone else has cleared out, Louis is finishing up in the dining room with one of the servers, and with Niall off, Harry’s alone in the kitchen, so at least there’s no one around when he slips on a greasy spot on the floor and spills an entire vat of gazpacho all over himself. Because his coat and apron take the brunt of it, his pants escape mostly unscathed. Harry tosses the coat and apron into the sink and runs warm water over them while he cleans up the mess all over the floor. 

By the time he’s finished, he’s soaked in sweat, he’s slipped and fallen on the wet floor twice, and he’s never been more ready for a shower. He feels sorry for anyone who has to be near him on the subway. With the soup rinsed off, Harry rings most of the water out, and drapes his wet chef coat and apron over the top of the dirty linen bag near the back door so that it can go to the cleaners in the morning. His t-shirt is damp, but it’s summer and that’s pretty much the norm. Harry heads towards the office to wait for Louis, bumping into Renee right outside the door. 

“Sorry!” She stops short and so does Harry and they both laugh.

“Good night?” Harry asks, hoping that she did alright. 

She nods. “You know…” She steps closer, tilting her head and narrowing her eyes. “Your bite…”

Harry slaps his hand over his bondmark. It hasn’t even healed yet and he can feel it pulsing beneath his hand.

She leans in and asks, “Louis is your mate?”

It would be funny, how far Harry’s body jerks back, if he didn’t feel like he might pass out.

“You smell like him, and I thought because you work together, but you were both off the same day last week and that's a newer bite, so...”

Harry can see Louis coming through the kitchen and he scrambles to think of something to say, but Renee looks over her shoulder and sees him too.

“Louis, Chef Harry’s your O?” she calls out, and Harry wants to melt into the floor when Louis’ eyes snap straight to his. 

“Excuse me?” Louis hurries over and says, “Not that it’s any of your business, Renee, but no, I’m not Harry’s bondmate. He was just here visiting last week, and I’m sure Harry misses him.”

She turns to Harry and he nods, straightens his shoulders, and says, “I do, yeah. Thanks, Louis. And you should know, Renee, that it’s really unacceptable to talk to people you don’t know well about their bondmarks. Similar behavior in the future will get you fired. Understand?”

“Yes, sir. Yes, Chef.” 

“Good. Have a good night. See you tomorrow.” Harry backs into the office and shuts the door, locking it and leaving Louis and Renee standing outside. He doesn’t bother going around the desk, just drops down into the closest chair, which turns out to be a chair from the dining room that has a wobbly leg that needs to be fixed. 

“You okay?” Louis shuts the door behind him, but doesn’t step any further into the room. 

“Yeah, just fucking pissed.” Harry traces the bondmark and says, “I hate this shit. Having to lie. Having to fake a fucking bond? I hate it. Hate that Renee was able to shock me like that. I couldn’t think. I’m sorry you had to step in.”

“I didn’t _have to_ step in, Harry.” Louis pushes away from the door, coming closer to Harry where he’s slumped in the wooden chair. “You know, I could get in trouble too. It’s just as illegal for an Alpha to fake a bond as it is for an Omega. We’ve both lied about it. But she was rude. And I would have said something to her anyway, no matter who she was being rude to, because I’m her manager, you’re my coworker, my friend, and _also_ because we’re bonded.”

Harry scoffs at the word, tracing it again with his fingertip. 

“Let me put it another way. I would do it anyway, but doing it conveniently satisfies my tie to the bond.”

“Oh.” Harry nods. “That sort of makes sense.”

“Yeah, the bond is stronger because we’re around each other all the time, but I’m more tied to you, I think, because I was bonded before.”

Every single time Harry is reminded that their bond is just one of many on Louis’ side, it absolutely ruins his mood. And this is the second time Louis has mentioned his tie being stronger because of his previous bond, when Harry’s never heard of such a thing. Considering how the last hour or so went, Harry surprises himself when all he says is, “Well, maybe you should’ve thought of the consequences before you went around selling your Alpha bite.”

“You know what, Harry?” Louis tone is surprisingly sharp. “You don’t know shit, okay?” 

Harry rolls his eyes. “You deny that you quick-bonded me for money?”

“Yes. No. Sort of.”

“What the fuck is that supposed to mean?”

“I overheard Liam talking about your situation and thought we could help each other out, but I knew no one would take me seriously if I said I’d do it for free. I did it for half the usual and I, um…” Louis crosses his arms and walks around to sit on the edge of the desk. “Well, I donated the money to charity. I didn’t want it and I didn’t think I’d ever see you again, let alone be telling you all of this. But I can like, pay you back. Not all at once, but, you know.”

The way they’re sitting, Harry has to look up to meet Louis’ eyes. Harry frowns and shakes his head, confused and a little lightheaded still from the encounter with Renee. “No. I don’t… I wouldn’t… Why… Why would it help you?”

“New bonds break old bonds.” 

“What, like, the person you bonded before me didn’t pay you or something?”

Louis sighs and looks away. “I’ve only ever been bonded to one other person, Harry. My ex. We did a quick-bond when we were younger because he wanted to take things slowly, then a full bond later on. You saw him the other day.”

“You broke a bond with a pregnant person?” Harry is out of his seat so fast that he knocks the chair over. “You bonded me on New Year’s Eve, Louis. That baby was a newborn. Your ex was pregnant when you—”

“No, Harry!” Louis pushes himself off the desk, holding his palms out towards Harry. “The baby isn’t mine. He cheated and left me for the guy. I should’ve said that first I guess, but it’s not something I like to think about. I just…” Louis drops his arms and looks away, voice going quiet. “I wanted to break my tie to him. He’d already broken the bond.”

At first Harry doesn’t say anything. He can’t. He’s never been so wrong about something. Or someone. And he’s been such an ass to Louis. For months. 

“I’m so, so sorry, Louis.” Harry swallows around the lump in his throat and wonders if it’s possible to throw up from shame. 

“It’s okay, Harry. I’m the one who kept it secret.” 

“It’s not okay, Louis. Jesus. I’ve been a dick to— What was your ex doing here?” He asks before he even thinks about it, as soon as the thought pops into his head.

Louis huffs and pinches the bridge of his nose. “He wants to get back together.”

“What.”

“Yeah, um… The guy he cheated with cheated on him. Imagine that, right? I mean, I told him no. Obviously.”

“Oh, yeah. Obviously.” Harry nods, pressing his fingertips to his lips. It actually wasn’t obvious, but he’s not about to say that out loud. His mind is a mess, trying to reset months of interactions with Louis in his memory, and he’s appalled. 

“Are you okay?” Louis asks and Harry realizes he’s just been standing there, staring at Louis, so ashamed of himself that his entire body feels hot and he knows his face is beet red. Still, he manages to nod, and the corners of Louis’ lips twitch. “You ready to go?”

Harry nods again. 

It’s late and the subway isn’t crowded at all, so it seems silly for Harry to sit on the other end of the car when he knows he’ll be able to smell Louis just as clearly from there. They sit side by side, talking about the upcoming menu change, what Harry’s thinking of submitting this time, and the approaching holiday season. It’s still hot as fuck out now, but fall could be there any day, and the last three months of the year are always hectic for Harry. 

It’s humid but there’s a breeze and when they leave the subway and it hits the layer of sweat on Harry’s skin it makes him shiver and he realizes that, while he walks around with his bondmark uncovered most of the time when he’s not at work, this is the first time he’s ever done so around Louis. Even in this oppressive summer heat, if he and Louis leave work together, he leaves his chef coat on until he gets home. 

Harry fixes his posture, straightening his spine and glancing quickly at Louis. The rest of the walk home, Harry remains hyper aware of his bondmark and that it’s on the side of his body closest to Louis, stretched out collar of his white t-shirt revealing every inch of skin still mottled from Louis’ bruises. The breeze blows again and his nipples harden and it’s a fight to keep his eyes forward and his mouth shut, but Harry does it. 

When they get to Louis’ building, Harry stops for a second to say goodnight, stuffing his hands into his pockets to keep from touching his mark whenever Louis glances at it. Harry takes a few steps backwards down the sidewalk, lifting one hand to wave and almost immediately tipping his head and mindlessly running his fingertips over the bondmark, tripping as he does so, and making himself turn around before he walks out into traffic or something. 

Ω

Summer is always so hectic that it feels like it’s barely started by the time the kids are all going back to school and the restaurant suddenly isn’t as busy as it was last week and Harry spends all of his spare time in the back of the restaurant, trying out new recipes, finalizing his contributions to the entries for the fall and winter menu. 

Things between Harry and Louis have been strange since he found out the truth about Louis’ reasons for doing the quick-bond. The very next day, Harry told his mom about it, about his behavior, about Louis, about everything, he had to start at the very beginning. Though she knew about the quick-bond, she didn’t know anything else, and he doesn’t know exactly what he expected from her as far as a reaction goes, but all she said was that Harry would figure out how to apologize. 

He starts small. Trying to build a tentative bridge between them by offering Louis tastes of the experimental dishes he comes up with or asking his opinion on wine pairings with the entree specials. 

Within a few weeks, Harry falls into a routine, making a small meal for Louis when he first gets to work—usually half of a sandwich and a cup of soup, and preparing the evenings entree special for him at the end of each night before he closes the kitchen. 

While Louis is in the office, Harry makes his dinner and carries it out to the bar, putting out a place setting and a glass of whatever wine Louis recommended to go with the special earlier that day. Then Harry knocks on the office door, sending Louis out to the bar. 

It satisfies the desire to apologize and he can feel how pleased Louis is every time he quietly thanks Harry for making him lunch, and every time Harry responds that it’s just easier to cut his sandwich in half since he can’t eat it all. 

Ω

During a lull between tables, Harry looks over the schedule, trying to plan around his upcoming heat. He’s a little nervous about it because he plans to go to a heat hotel and he has to juggle every other kitchen employee’s normal schedule to give himself a week off. It’s a pain in the ass, but he knows he should do it now that it’s the slow season, and he has enough competent people to cover the shifts. Or he would, if Louis hadn’t written “LOUIS OFF MON-SUN” in big blue marker on the calendar across the week of Harry’s heat.

He waits until the end of the night to bring it up so that there are fewer people around to overhear, and he stays in the office thinking that Louis will eventually come back there again, but he doesn’t, hanging out at the bar with Niall until Harry gives up and joins them. With a copy of that week’s schedule in his hand, Harry leans onto the bar, resting his weight on his forearms. 

“Lou, hey,” Harry waves him over, and when Louis hops up onto the barstool in front of him, Harry smooths the paper copy of the schedule onto the bartop. “You requested some vacation time in a few weeks, and I kind of need the same days off. Don’t suppose you could reschedule or like, come back early from your trip or something?”

“Harry, it’s not…” Louis looks around behind him, then at Niall where he sits at the other end of the bar. His cheeks start turning pink, and he whispers, “It’s rut leave. I schedule it this time every year since it’s—”

“The slowest time for the restaurant. Yep. Shit. Okay.” Harry drops his head onto his arms and rocks back and forth on his tired feet, then looks up at Louis. “Never mind. I’ll, um… figure it out.”

“Is that your heat?” Louis sits back in his chair and covers his hand with his mouth, but he spoke loudly, and Niall definitely heard him.

“Yeah, that’s right. Almost forgot,” Niall calls down the bar. “Your Alpha coming to spend your heat with you? Need me to clear out of the apartment that week?”

“No, no, I’m, um… I don’t know.” Harry shakes his head quickly. “He’s supposed to come, yeah, and, um… I was actually planning to spend the week at a heat hotel either way, so you wouldn’t need to find a place to stay or anything like that. But if Louis already put in for the time off, I’ll push mine back—”

“Your heat’s due though?” Niall asks. “Can you push it back? Isn’t that dangerous? Doesn’t that cause breakthrough heats or something?”

“It can, but—”

“Plus, we have that food show that weekend? So you guys _can’t_ be off then. And it’ll be fine. Get your Alpha here, your heat’ll be what? A couple of days? Then Louis, you find an Omega to help you through your rut, and you guys will be back at work before the weekend. Easy peasy.”

“Easy peasy.” Harry keeps his voice level, but the thought of Louis fucking another Omega through his rut while Harry’s in some heat hotel alone with a dildo for a week, has him caught between horrified and horny. 

“Right.” Louis hops up and flips a chair on top of the bar, then Niall does the rest, and the three of them leave together. Harry stays up late thinking it over and when he wakes up the next morning, he finally has a solution.

Ω

Maybe it’s obvious to Louis, what Harry’s angling for, but he doesn’t bring it up and he doesn’t act like he knows, and he answers all of Harry’s questions, even the ones that make the tops of his ears turn pink. 

They both have appointments at the same clinic on the same day for their suppressant shots, and Louis already filled the prescription for his rut inducer, which he plans to take Sunday night after he gets home from work. Without an Omega, his ruts last about five days, but three days is typical if he has an O to help him through it. 

As nonchalantly as he can, Harry drops little bits of information, like that his heats alone are mild, but last the full seven days, and that he’s never spent one with an Alpha. He doesn’t mention that he’s never slept with an Alpha at all, though he’s heard from Zayn that an Omega in heat together with an Alpha in rut can shorten both to just two days. But Louis never brings it up or asks Harry any questions, not that Harry expected him to. 

Harry finally propositions him the Saturday before his heat is supposed to begin, after working up the courage all night, cooking Louis’ favorite lemon chicken for his dinner, though he switches out the lemons for bergamot and hopes it does the trick. 

“Would you be willing,” Harry starts slowly and each word comes out measured and even, “to help me through my heat?” 

Since Harry waits to ask until Louis has a mouth full of chicken, Louis’ jaw freezes, he sets his fork down on his plate and holds one finger up, mechanically chewing and swallowing quickly, chasing it with a gulp of Sauvignon Blanc.

Louis pushes his plate to the side and leans forward, resting his arms on the bar. “Can’t believe you asked me that when I had food in my mouth. I could’ve died, Harry.”

Ignoring him, Harry asks, “Will you?” 

“What? For the good of the restaurant? That’s stupid.” Louis slides his plate back over and picks up his fork and Harry doesn’t know what to do. He worded the question carefully, so that it seemed like it’d be impossible to say no, and Louis somehow flipped it around and made turning Harry down sound sensible. “No, you take your heat leave, and when you come back I’ll take my rut leave. I can push mine off a week.”

Harry looks away, trying to fight the warmth traveling up his neck, turning his skin pink. With most of his weight on one leg, Harry shakes the other one nervously, hoping that Louis can’t see it from the other side of the bar. “It’s not just that. I don’t want to have to miss the food show. It’s my first year as head chef and I want to be there. And also, I mean, I’m glad that I don’t have to do it monthly or quarterly, but even once a year it’s a pain in the ass to be completely out of commission for an entire week.”

“Alright.” Louis takes another bite of his food and Harry stands there shocked. He didn’t expect Louis to change his mind so quickly. It throws Harry off balance and he finds himself frowning at Louis while he eats. “Where are we doing this?”

Louis is so straightforward that Harry’s glad he planned ahead. “That heat hotel. I have reservations and I can schedule us both for Monday through Thursday off. We can check in Sunday night after work, if you want.”

“Anything else or can I give you my conditions?”

“Yeah, I mean, I figure we need to talk about the actual sex. With my suppressants, when I take my inducer, I have about six to eight hours before my heat kicks in. But like I said, they’re mild and I’ve never been with an Alpha through one. They’re supposed to be more intense because of, um…”

“The knotting. Yeah. I was going to say. I’m pretty lucid during my ruts, so I could, um…” Louis drops the fork he’s been holding over the plate and pushes his dinner away. “Take this please. It’s wonderful, thank you for making it for me, but I can’t eat and have this conversation.”

One of Harry’s loud laughs bursts out of him and he grabs Louis’ plate, setting it behind the bar. He watches Louis drain his wine glass and refill it, pouring one for Harry too.

Louis sets the bottle down and says, “So, like I said. I’m not like, out of it during my ruts and I could try to pull out, but I don’t know if—”

“No. I want you to knot me.” Harry takes two sips of wine and holds the cool glass up to his cheek, watching Louis close his eyes, and breathe slowly through his nose. “That’s the whole point, isn’t it? The pheromones released during knotting alongside the knot are what intensify rut and heat, and what shortens them.”

Louis opens his eyes and Harry looks down into them over the rim of his wine glass. “I just want you to understand, Harry, that if we do this… I know I keep saying it, but I’m _aware_ during rut. My suppressants help a lot. But I need… It makes me nervous, asking permission from you to do things to you. To your body. Like, this is so fucking weird.”

“It is.” Harry laughs and covers part of his face with his hand. “I’m sorry.”

“No, it’s fine. It’s just… I can’t use condoms during rut. Any time I’ve tried, they’ve broken, and I can’t even guarantee I’d remember one every round.”

“Okay, um… That’s okay. I’m on the birth control shot too.”

“I’m likely to say and do a lot of possessive things. Like, I won’t mate-bond you—”

“Of course, yeah.” Harry’s eyes go wide. He hadn’t even thought of that.

“But I like biting and marking and scratching. And I like, um… There are certain positions I like and—”

“It’s fine, Lou. I promise. Listen. I know what to expect, okay? I really have thought a lot about this. So, will you do it?”

“I will… um… I’ll do it. Sunday? Tomorrow.”

“Yeah,” Harry says, barely breathing. 

He hurries Louis through the rest of the closing routine and onto the subway, sitting stiffly next to him for fear that if he relaxes at all, he’ll somehow wind up in Louis’ lap. Once they check in to the heat hotel, that’ll be alright, but until then, Harry has to make himself act somewhat normally. 

He didn’t think to ask Louis and he doesn’t want to ask him now, not when they’ve literally never called or texted each other before, but he needs to decide what to bring to the heat hotel. 

Harry takes everything out and lays it on the bed and in his bag alongside two pairs of sweatpants, two t-shirts, a hoodie, two pairs of fuzzy socks, and three pairs of underwear, he packs his knotting dildo, a brand new bottle of lube, a bunch of bananas and a bag of oranges. 

It’s fairly busy at the restaurant that night, so he only sees Louis early on when he brings him half of a grilled cheese sandwich and a cup of tomato soup. Just when Harry’s about to start figuring out what to make for Louis’ dinner, he pops back into the kitchen to quietly ask Harry to make both of their meals to go, and disappears again. 

All night long, Harry keeps expecting to feel nervous or anxious, but the feeling never comes. He walks Niall and Jess to the back door of the kitchen and watches them disappear around the corner at the end of the alley, collects all of his and Louis’ things from the office, and is grabbing the bag with their food when Louis comes through the swinging doors.

“Can I carry some of that?” Louis holds his hands out and Harry lets him take his own backpack off of Harry’s shoulder, but Harry insists on carrying everything else. After all, they’re taking a taxi to the heat hotel, so he’s only carrying it to the end of the alley.

They’re quiet on the ride over to the heat hotel. The night is strange so far, and Harry almost feels like they could be preparing to go to sleep. It takes him a while to realize that’s exactly what they’re doing. 

Louis sets up their meal on the little round table by the window, and while they eat, Louis asks him questions like if he prefers to drink only water during his heat or if he likes to cuddle.

Harry grins. “Yes. Little spoon, please.”

Louis looks surprised and Harry wants to tell him he’ll take any kind of cuddling, he’s not picky. But Louis doesn’t stop talking long enough for Harry to speak up, asking, “How do you usually sleep? Like on your side? Back?” 

“On my stomach.”

Louis watches him for a moment, and Harry nods, looking down at his food. He pops an olive into his mouth and Louis asks, “How do you feel about falling asleep on my knot? 

Harry coughs, swallowing the olive whole, and squeaks out an, “Okay.” 

His face heats up because he’s can’t stop picturing it. 

Exhausted from fucking for days, Louis would take him from behind while they’re both lying on their sides. A slow fuck. Both of them barely moving, hot and damp and sticky. 

He’d hook his arm underneath Harry’s side and around his chest, digging his fingers into Harry’s shoulder, and Harry would keep a tight grip on Louis’ wrist. Or Louis would pull Harry’s hair down out of its messy bun, and curl it around his fingers, tugging, while dragging his lips over Harry’s tender, marked skin. 

They’d stay like that, circling their hips, grinding against each other until Louis’ knot would begin to swell and Harry’s body would jerk, his first orgasm taking him by surprise. Louis would hold him tightly and kiss the damp skin of Harry’s shoulder blade, murmuring words of encouragement, telling him how well he’s taking it, barely rocking their bodies together as Harry shudders and his orgasm builds. Louis’ knot would lock in place and Harry would come again and again, while Louis talked him through it, eventually dozing off with Louis’ knot plugging him full of come, his head floating on a cloud of Louis’ heady scent. 

Louis doesn’t ask him anymore questions after that. They finish dinner and brush their teeth and shower separately and since Harry showers first, he winds up debating what to wear for a little while before finally leaving the bathroom in nothing but a loose pair of dark grey sweatpants that draw a certain amount of attention to his dick. After Louis showers and returns in a pair of blue boxer briefs, they take their inducers, Harry sets three glasses of water on his bedside table, and they go to bed.

It’s just his luck that Louis is gorgeous. It made it difficult to be around him when Harry could convince himself that he disliked Louis, but now, when he’s long since admitted that Louis is a wonderful person, seeing him is, at the same time, the best and worst part of his day. 

There’s a draw in being bonded. It feels like an actual physical pull to be nearer to each other. But Harry never felt it until after they quick-bonded the second time, though he didn’t realize what was happening at first. It’s been since Harry started cooking for him that it’s gotten stronger and there’s a reason Harry brings Louis his dinner at the bar. Because with the bar between them, he’s much less likely to crawl into Louis’ lap. 

Just for a few seconds, Harry’s able to drink in the sight of Louis’ mostly naked body in the lamplight beside the bed—the ocean in his eyes, the golden curve of his lower back and the movement of his muscles when he pulls down the sheets. 

Louis turns off the light and Harry wonders how he’ll make it out of this heat alive, if all it takes is some G-rated bed making to get to him. It’s everything he can do to keep from plastering himself to Louis’ body as is.

For too long, they lie side by side in the dark, not touching, and Harry’s every breath has him paranoid that he’s making too much noise or bothering Louis in some way or that Louis can tell what he’s thinking. He wonders if he’ll be able to sleep or if he’ll still be awake and worrying when his heat kicks in. 

“Harry?” Louis’ voice is rough in the recycled heat hotel air, and when Harry looks over, Louis is lying on his back with his hands folded beneath his head. “I know you haven’t technically started your heat, but can we cuddle?”

Harry flips onto his side and wiggles towards Louis, stopping when he’s just a few inches from resting his cheek on Louis’ chest. His body stills for a second before Louis brings his arm down around Harry’s shoulder, and no longer hesitant, Harry cuddles up to Louis, arm draped over his stomach, and looks up to find Louis grinning down at him in the dark. 

“What?” Harry whispers. 

“Nothing, just, um…” Louis carefully takes Harry’s hair down out of its bun, loops his hair tie around his wrist, and scratches his short nails over Harry’s scalp, sending shivers down his spine.

Harry cuddles closer and falls asleep before Louis can say anything else. 

Ω

Almost every time Harry has ever woken up during a heat, he’s been lying on his stomach, grinding against the mattress. This time is no different. The same thrum of want runs alongside his pulse. The same hunger that lies dormant the other three hundred fifty-eight days of the year, warms his stomach. Normally, Harry’s heats are seven days spent slowly quenching a mild but persistent thirst, but an Alpha’s knot is supposed to change things. 

The cool palm of Louis’ hand rests between Harry’s shoulder blades, and he says, “You awake?”

Harry whines at the sound of Louis’ voice, rutting harder against the bed. But they agreed to verbally communicate throughout their combined heat and rut, if they can, so Harry says, “Yeah, I’m awake.” He lifts his head to look at Louis, regretting it instantly when he sees Louis’ perfect messy hair and beautiful unshaven face.

“I just wanted to tell you, like, before either of us gets too far gone, that I’ve only ever done this with my ex. Like, most of my ruts have been solo, actually. I’m not, um… I’m not like, super experienced with heats and I… I feel like you have a certain impression of me, and I—”

“No, um… It’s good. That’s good. I don’t… I’ve never spent my heat with anyone. So, I…”

“Oh,” Louis’ eye’s go wide and he drops his chin to his chest for a second and then looks back up, meeting Harry’s eyes. “When you said you’d never spent your heat with an Alpha, I thought you meant you’d spent them with a Beta or another Omega.”

“No, no. Just me.” Harry raises his hand and waves it, then covers his face with it. His face feels like it’s on fire and he wants to kick the sheets off, but his heat’s just starting and he’s not that desperate yet. So he circles his hips again, wondering how long until Louis’ rut starts. 

“Do you want to come?” Louis asks and Harry presses his lips together, whimpering.

“You’re not in rut yet. I… I’m fine. I can—”

“Your heat’s started though. I can make you come, if you’d like. Up to you.” Louis trails his cool hand down Harry’s spine, resting it on his lower back, just above the fold of the sheet that barely covers him. “Think about it. I’m going to go ahead and fill the tub with cold water so we won’t have to wait later.”

It’s not as if it’s truly a choice. 

When Louis comes back and sits on the edge of the bed, Harry instinctively moves towards him, sniffing the air around him and the sheets where he spent the night. 

“Did you think about it?” Louis combs Harry’s curls back off his face and Harry nods. “Well?”

“I… I want you to make me come.”

“You want me to suck you off?” Louis asks and Harry hisses, turning onto his side and slipping his hand beneath the sheet.

“No. No. I want your hands. And your fingers. And then I want you to knot me.” Harry bucks into his hand and Louis reaches out, grabbing Harry’s wrist through the sheet.

“Is there anything, um…” Louis releases Harry’s hand and Harry clenches his fist in order to keep from touching himself. “Is there anything else you’ve thought of that you don’t want me to do? I can feel my rut coming on, so…” 

“No. Nothing.” Harry shakes his head. “I want…”

Louis shushes him and pulls the sheet off of Harry slowly, tossing it onto the floor in the corner of the room. Sliding the hand he’s been resting on Harry’s lower back down and smoothing it over Harry’s ass, Louis says, “Got a great bum.” 

And he grabs hold, digging his fingers into the flesh of Harry’s ass and pulling his cheeks apart. Harry shivers when the air touches the slick-wet skin in the crease of his ass and he moans, shifting his hips, trying to make Louis do something.

“You want to come on my fingers?” Louis asks, as if Harry didn’t just ask him. As if he’s somehow forgotten.

“Yes.” Harry nods and clenches his ass around nothing, feeling a slow trickle of slick escape.

Louis drags his index finger down Harry’s spine, slowing as he traces over the curve of his lower back, and Harry arches up, not caring when Louis laughs at him because he gives him exactly what he wants, sliding his finger through Harry’s slick and pushing it inside without waiting another second.

There’s barely time for Harry to complain that it’s not enough before Louis fits a second finger inside, pumping and twisting them. “Can you fuck the bed while I fuck you with my fingers?”

Harry nods and ruts against the mattress, forcing Louis’ fingers in deeper. It only takes them a few seconds to meet each other’s rhythm, Harry lifting his hips back just as Louis prods his two fingers deep, hitting him right where he needs it every time and making him see stars. 

There isn’t enough friction with the mattress, and Harry’s trying to figure out how to tell Louis he was wrong, that he can’t come like that, when Louis pulls his fingers free completely and Harry gasps at the sudden emptiness. He feels the slick that Louis pushed inside him begin to trickle out and he wiggles his ass, stopping when Louis grabs him, pulls his cheeks apart with both hands, and licks him firmly from his balls to the bottom of his spine. 

He’s sloppy about it, licking Harry messily and rubbing his lips back and forth over his rim. It’s been more than twenty-four hours since Louis last shaved and the hairs are sharp, scraping Harry’s skin. Louis pulls back and Harry breathes in his scent, pushing his ass up and asking for more. 

Two fingers slide in effortlessly. He scissors them and licks around them, pulling them out again and replacing them with his tongue. With his tongue buried inside Harry’s ass, Louis reaches underneath him, trapping Harry’s cock against his stomach and pressing up, making Harry fuck the flat palm of his hand. 

Louis lifts up, traces the tip of his tongue around Harry’s rim, and sits back a bit. He slides his fingers up and down Harry’s crack, smearing slick and spit everywhere, and says, “Not just wet for me, baby.” He slides one finger all the way inside and back out again. “Slippery with it.” Two fingers push in just as easily and Louis circles his wrist, pulling his fingers out, and Harry moans when he hears him sucking them clean. “Tastes amazing. Wanna get inside you though.” Harry lifts his hips when he feels Louis start to push in with a third finger and grunts when he forces himself back onto all three, circling his hips and grinding against Louis’ hand. “Gonna knot you and fill you up. Soon as you come.” 

The promise of a knot is enough to make Harry come. Most of it’s contained to the palm of Louis’ hand, and he rolls Harry over to suck him clean before he licks his fingers. 

It’s an awesome orgasm. Top five, easily. Harry wants to applaud, but he’s too worn out. And nothing’s changed about his heat yet. Without Louis’ knot, he’s tamping down the fire just to release it and let it flare again. At this rate it’ll burn for a week. 

Harry stretches his arms overhead and rolls onto his stomach, pushing himself up onto his hands and knees to reach for one of the glasses of water on the bedside table. He sits up all the way on his knees, tips his head back, and swallows the entire glass of room temperature water in one go. 

When he sets the glass down, the sound is loud in the room, and he turns to look at Louis, wondering why he’s so quiet. 

Against the white of the sheets, Louis’ skin looks like he spent the week at the beach, and Harry wonders if he’s ever done that before. What he’s like on vacation or at home, with his family or his friends. The morning sun makes him glow wherever it touches him and Harry lets his eyes wander down Louis’ body. He’s hard; dick fat and flushed in his hand. 

Harry’s eyes dart up to Louis’ face and he takes in his hair, damp with sweat and stuck to his forehead, the uneven pink tint to the skin of his cheeks and neck, sticky with Harry’s slick, the blue of his eyes that are so dark now and filled with hunger, that Harry can’t look away. 

“You there?” Harry asks, reaching up to brush Louis’ hair off his forehead.

Louis nods and blinks slowly, closing his eyes, and stroking himself. “Yeah, it’s starting. Gonna knot you.” Louis cringes and says, “Sorry.”

“Why? That’s the plan, isn’t it?” As soon as he thinks about Louis’ knot, he needs it, shifting side to side where he sits with his knees bent and his feet folded underneath him. He can feel the slight tightness of his skin from the scratches from Louis’ beard, and as he wiggles his hips, slick trickles out of him. 

“You smell so fucking good. Oh my god.” Louis sits up and grabs Harry’s shoulder, pulling him down and rolling him over on his back, before climbing between his legs and pushing the pads of his fingers against the outside of Harry’s rim, swiping his thumb through the slick that leaks out, and licking it clean. “Can’t wait to knot you. Bet you sound amazing like that. So full.”

Harry whines and stretches his neck, holding his hands behind his knees and pulling his legs up. “Fuck me, Lou. Come on.”

He doesn’t need prep. He literally just had Louis’ fingers in him and he’s so wet that his thighs are sticky, but Louis doesn’t fuck him right away. Instead, he runs his knuckle over Harry’s rim, gathering his slick and pushing it back inside with two fingers, then three, spreading them. 

“Can’t believe you’re a tease when you’re in rut.” Harry reaches down with both hands to push Louis’ fingers away, grabs Louis’ hair and tugs to haul him up. His hair isn’t as long as Harry’s, but there’s enough to hold onto and Harry tightens his grip, bringing them face to face. “Kiss me and then put your cock in me.”

Louis nods and drops the rest of his weight on Harry, bumping their lips together, pulling back and slowly leaning in to try again. While Louis kisses him, Harry tries to keep up, but Louis is all that he can smell, except for the scent of his own slick and heat, but they somehow magnify each other. He needs to be filled. Fucked. Knotted. 

Louis dips his tongue into Harry’s mouth, and his cool fingertips trail across Harry’s cheekbone, down his neck, over his arm and his side and his hip and his thigh, raising goosebumps as they go. He sucks Harry’s lower lip into his mouth and lets it go, pressing the head of his cock against Harry’s rim and sighing against his lips as he pushes all the way inside. 

“So fucking tight, baby.” Louis kisses him softly and pushes Harry’s hair off of his face. He drops his forehead down to rest on Harry’s shoulder, circling his hips and pulling out a little before thrusting back inside. “Smell so good. Like everything.”

Slow and deep, it’s exactly what Harry wants, and he can’t stop kissing Louis. He hitches his hips up higher, tightening his legs around Louis’ waist, already high off of Louis’ scent, his first orgasm, and his heat. Harry comes between them, clenching around Louis’ cock. 

Louis sits up and pulls out, lowering Harry’s legs down. He massages the front of Harry’s hips, then taps the side of his thigh. “Want to knot you from behind so I can watch you take it.”

Harry scrambles onto his hands and knees, shamelessly arching his back and wiggling his body expectantly. With both hands, Louis grips Harry’s ass, squeezing it and spreading his cheeks apart, bending down to lick him again, humming against his rim. He smooths his hand over the skin of Harry’s back, up and over his shoulder, stretching his fingers along Harry’s neck and tangling them in his hair. Pulling Harry’s head back, he turns it to the side, and leans in to kiss his slack mouth, before sitting back up and placing a firm hand between his shoulder blades, pushing him down. 

With his ass up in the air, Harry chews on his lower lip, trying not to whine impatiently for Louis to fuck back inside. Louis doesn’t make him wait long before he can feel his thumb pushing the head of his cock past Harry’s rim. That little bit of extra pressure makes him tremble, and if Louis didn’t have a tight grip on Harry’s hips, he’d take all of him again in a split second.

“Yes,” Harry hisses as the base of Louis’ cock is forced past his rim, his knot only slightly swollen.

Louis bucks his hips, jolting Harry up the bed, then he drops his hands to Harry’s waist and pulls back, fucking inside fast and hard. No longer slow and deep, Louis pistons his hips, plunging shallowly in and out, bumping his knot against the outside of Harry’s rim, but not pushing past it. The head of Louis’ cock jabs against Harry’s prostate and he comes again, spurting on the bed below him, while Louis forces his swelling knot through the clenching muscle.

With his cock as deep as he can go, Louis waits until Harry starts to rock back onto it before he dicks in hard. As his knot slowly swells, it catches on Harry’s rim, tugging harder and harder and making him grunt every time it pops in and out. 

Grinding circles against Harry’s ass, Louis stays deep inside, touching all of him, then Louis jerks his hips back, knot barely popping free before he thrusts forward and Harry yelps, fucking back onto Louis’ knot as hard as he can and jerking himself through another orgasm.

Louis groans and pushes him forward onto his belly, following him down and covering Harry’s back with his body. He twists his hips and they stutter as his first orgasm is slowly dragged out of him. 

“Did so well, baby.” Louis strokes the outside of Harry’s arm and gently rolls him so that they’re both on their sides while Louis’ knot continues to swell. 

It’s so similar to his knotting dildo, yet so very different. He clenches his muscles and Louis groans, the rumble travels through Harry as Louis’ knot pulses inside of him, growing slightly larger, and his body shakes as he accommodates it. 

“Fuck. It’s so big.” Harry shifts a little and Louis holds tightly to his waist, keeping them together.

“It’s a knot. What’d you expect?”

“I don’t know.” Harry hums as he settles down again. “Guess I thought it’d be more like my dildo.”

“Why would it— Harry. Have you…” Louis whispers against the back of Harry’s neck, “Have you never been knotted before?”

Harry shakes his head. 

Louis sucks a breath in through his teeth. “You should’ve told me, baby. I was too rough with you.”

Harry shakes his head again. “Liked it. Just… I’m sorry. Didn’t mean to upset you.”

“It’s fine. I didn’t ask you, so… um, have you ever been with an Alpha before?”

“No.” Harry cranes his neck to look back around at Louis. “Never wanted to before.”

Soft lips press against the base of Harry’s neck and Louis’ body twitches through the aftershocks of his orgasm. He drags his teeth over the back of Harry’s shoulder and bites down lightly, but just the sensation of Louis’ teeth on his skin has Harry writhing, rubbing Louis’ swollen knot against his prostate, cock weakly spurting as he comes once more before drifting off to sleep. 

Ω

Zayn explained heat with an Alpha as taking a typical seven day heat, tripling it, and cramming it all into two days. And that’s just about what it feels like. The lucidity afforded by their suppressants and inducers mean that Harry is completely aware of every knot he takes, every time he begs Louis to fuck him harder, every sweet or dirty thing that comes out of Louis’ mouth. 

It’s so much easier for Harry to ignore it or write it off when Louis says something like “You were made to take my knot.” versus something like “Want to take care of you like this all the time.”

There’s no way for Harry to really know how much of what Louis says is real when he doesn’t know much at all about ruts or Alphas or Louis when he’s in this state. But everything he says makes Harry feel good, so he just moans and nods and agrees, responding with “Only your knot.” and “Want you to.” hoping that he can blame it on his heat.

Towards the end of day two, Louis fucks him face to face, knotting him and rolling them over so that Harry can rest on top of him. While he lays there, face buried in the crook of Louis’ neck, breathing him in, he slides his hands down, shoving them under Louis’ body, bending his spine until he grabs Louis’ ass in both hands. 

Louis squeaks and Harry laughs, letting him go and adjusting his body over top of him. “You have a great ass, you know. For an Alpha.”

“I do.” Louis smack’s Harry’s bum and says, “Not just for an Alpha. It’s a great ass in general.”

Harry hums his agreement. “You ever, um…”

“What?”

“Nothing. Was just… I was asking if you’ve ever been, like, um… on the receiving end, so to speak. It’s stupid. I know Alphas don’t do—”

“I have, actually. Alphas are just people, Harry. I’m just a person. And like… I didn’t plan on being an Alpha, believe it or not. Presented at twenty, which is pretty late, and I’d already… Well, I’d already fucked and been fucked at that point, so…” 

Slowly, Harry pushes himself up until he’s sitting, looking down at Louis underneath him. And while they wait for Louis’ knot to go down, Harry tells him almost everything. About presenting at twenty-four, about being told from a young age that he’d be an Alpha, about the expectations surrounding that, about how finding out he was an Omega felt like he was letting everybody down. 

They keep talking after Louis slips out of Harry and Harry leads him to the shower, while they wash, and while they eat. When they make it back to the bedroom, clean and dry for the first time in two days, Louis lays on his stomach and Harry works his fingers inside, one at a time. He takes it slow, having no clue how long it’s been since Louis has bottomed, luxuriating in the feel and smell and taste of his body, and fucking him until he can’t hold his orgasm back any longer. 

Sleep overtakes them and when Harry wakes up, he no longer feels the burning need to be filled that he has since he took Louis’ first knot. Zayn was right. Forty-eight hours and it’s over. 

Harry showers and, when he gets out and Louis is still asleep, he silently packs his bag and gets dressed, leaving a note on heat hotel stationery to tell Louis that his heat is over, so he assumes Louis’ rut is over too, that he’s welcome to stay in the room since it’s booked until Thursday, and that he’ll see him back at work ASAP. 

When Harry gets home, Niall is still asleep, so he goes to his room and climbs back in bed, burrowing under the blanket and breathing in the mixture of his and Louis’ scents that clings to him. He dozes off and wakes up hard, rutting against the mattress. Figuringing his ass can probably use a break, Harry simply jerks off, coming fairly quickly, and falls asleep again soon after. 

In the afternoon, Niall checks on him and Harry tells him that his heat is over and his Alpha went home, but he’s not feeling well, so he needs a couple of days before he comes back to work. 

After Niall leaves, Harry fucks himself with his knotting dildo, sobbing in frustration when he comes, but it’s not enough to satisfy him. He keeps trying, riding the dildo with the knot fully inflated, and coming twice more. He spends the following day napping and getting off as well, fingering himself to one orgasm while thinking about Louis licking him out, jerking off to thought of coming on Louis’ face, and fucking a knot into himself, tears in his eyes and Louis’ name on his lips. 

He falls asleep on the knot. It’s very different from falling asleep on Louis’ knot. He wakes up with a fully inflated dildo in his ass, which he has to deflate before he can do anything else. His ass hurts. There’s no way around it. He’s sore in a not good way, but not in a bad enough way that he can convince himself to stay home from work. 

He’s not injured. He’s just an idiot. He should’ve stayed at the heat hotel and taken Louis’ knot once or twice more. 

Ω

The food show is Sunday, so when Harry wakes up Friday and doesn’t immediately feel the need to get off, he heaves a big sigh of relief. 

They’d be busy anyway because it’s a Friday, but because they have to make so many extras for the food show, the kitchen is packed full with everyone on staff there to help food prep. Harry hardly sees Louis all night. When he brought Louis his roast beef sandwich and vegetable soup in the afternoon, he was in the office, at the desk, on the phone. He mouthed the words thank you and rolled his eyes at the phone and Harry was dismissed. 

At the end of the night, Harry plates up Louis’ dinner—a ribeye steak, because he read that meat is good for Alphas after their ruts—and carries it out to the bar to pour Louis a glass of wine. 

Louis frowns at the plate when Harry sets it down and says, “Thanks, um… I hate to do this, but Niall made me a huge steak last night and I actually ate the rest of it with some eggs for breakfast today, so with the roast beef at lunch…” 

“Oh, um, say no more. Yeah. Too much red meat. Sorry about that.” Harry smiles and pushes down the mix of disappointment and jealousy at the thought of Niall stepping in the take care of Louis because Harry wasn’t around. 

“Yeah, Niall knew I’d had my rut, so…”

Harry nods and picks up the plate, fighting the blush that’s working it’s way up his neck at the reminder of Louis’ rut and his heat.

“I’ll just have a sandwich at home. Not very hungry tonight. Thanks, Harry!”

Waving back over his shoulder, Harry carries the steak over to the prep table to wrap it up in a box to give away. 

The rest of the weekend is nonstop work. Harry doesn’t have a moment to think until Sunday evening when he leaves Niall in charge of clean up at the food show and drives back to the restaurant to close the kitchen there. He throws together Louis’ dinner—salmon, rice, asparagus—and carries it out to the bar, stopping short when he sees Louis sitting there instead of behind the desk in the office.

He’s talking to a customer, so Harry sets up Louis’ dinner a few places down the bar, pours two glasses of wine, and turns a plate upside down over Louis’ dinner to keep it warm. There’s always work to do in the kitchen, so Harry goes to the walk-in cooler and checks over everything in there. 

The entire week has been weird. He’s been feeling off since Wednesday when he came home, but not in a _sick_ way, just in a… still too warm, still need to come kind of way. It’s ridiculous. He didn’t have time to jerk off before work today and now all he wants to do is go home and come. Preferably with a knot. But his knotting dildo will have to do. 

There’s nothing else to do in the cooler, and he feels a bit better, so he heads back out into the kitchen, stopping when he sees Louis in the back, talking to the dishwasher. It would be obvious if he lingered, so Harry goes to the office to finish up. 

“Hey. Sorry about that.” Louis closes the office door and sits down across the desk from Harry, reaching across to tap the back of his hand. “Dinner was delicious. Thank you.” 

“Welcome.” Harry tries not to look too pleased, but it’s hard because every time he looks up at Louis, Louis is looking back, and he’s still smiling, so Harry doesn’t have a choice, really. He can’t stop grinning, so he finds something to say instead. “Would you say your rut—this last one, I mean—was typical?”

“Typical, how?” Louis leans back in his chair and holds his hand up, counting off on his fingers. “Length, strength, number of orgasms, general overall experience, pleasure level?” 

“Oh, um…” Harry didn’t consider any of the rest of that since he doesn’t have anything to compare it to, but now he wants to know. “Length? Like, it was over for you that morning?”

“Yeah, um…” Louis coughs into his fist and looks away. “I, um… In the shower. Before I left.”

“Oh, right!” Harry sits up straight in his chair, trying with all of his might not to picture Louis jerking off in the shower. Glass doors fogged over and steam so thick in the air that he’d have to get right up close to see— 

“Why?”

“Hmm?” Harry raises his eyebrows, blinking rapidly to clear the steam from his vision.

“Why’d you want to know if it was typical?”

“Oh! Oh, because, um… It was my first time with, um, you know...” Harry holds a hand out, palm up. “An Alpha. But it’s strange? Forty-eight hour heat, like Zayn said. I was fine and then I wasn’t? I went home and passed out and woke up and got off. Yesterday I came three times.”

“You left—” Louis’ voice cracks and while he clears his throat, Harry watches the movement of his jaw. “You left before your heat was over.”

“I…” Harry frowns, but Louis is probably right. “You think?”

Louis shrugs and scratches his chin with his thumb. “Yeah. I mean… Sounds like it. Should’ve stuck around for breakfast.”

It’s suddenly very clear to Harry that Louis didn’t like waking up alone at the heat hotel. And Harry falling off the face of the earth for two days after that probably didn’t help. 

“Waking up to find you gone, um…” Louis shakes his head, looking down at his lap. “We should’ve talked about it when we talked about the sex stuff. Like, I know that we were just doing each other a favor, but for me, part of being with you—with an Omega—during heat is taking care of them. Cuddling, kissing, sleeping together, making sure you eat and drink enough water, bathing with you. Scenting you. Which I did not get to do.”

“I’m sorry, Lou. I didn’t… I didn’t realize.” 

“Well, I’ve been in a shit mood because of it. Surprised you didn’t notice.”

“I noticed.” Harry drops his hands into his lap and clasps them together. “You ate it tonight, but you haven’t been eating my food.”

“Yeah, um… Sorry. I think it’s probably partly my tie to the bond.”

“No, um… I mean, maybe, but I don’t know that it’s just you. I went home Wednesday and went to bed and stayed there until Friday afternoon feeling weird and sad and horny. Sorry.”

“It’s fine, Harry. It’s over with now anyway.” Louis waves a hand as if that actually closes the subject. 

That night Harry comes twice while thinking of waking Louis up that last morning at the heat hotel. 

Ω

Things _are_ fine. 

They’re not super, but they’re not awful either, so… it’s fine. 

He’s falling in love with Louis, if he hasn’t already completely fallen, but it’s fine. 

Shortly after Harry presented as an Omega, he had his last boyfriend. Another Omega who worked at the same restaurant and they dated for a few months before Harry broke it off. Whatever spark was there in the beginning quickly faded and it turned out that they didn’t have much to talk about besides the restaurant. It wasn’t long after that that Harry was promoted to Sous Chef and, while he did date, no one ever interested him enough to make it worth his while to dedicate his free time to them. After a while, he stopped trying. 

Three years and he kind of forgot that it was possible to have feelings for someone. 

Except he’s not even sure they’re real.

There’s no way to know how much of what he feels for Louis is due to the bond. Other than to wait for it to end and see what’s left. And it’s really not far off, with the full moon coming the second week of December. 

The restaurant will only close for Christmas Day and New Year’s Day, so Harry isn’t making plans to go home, figuring he’ll have to be right back at work. With the holidays right around the corner, they start booking Christmas parties, which Harry loves because it means that he at least gets to be a little creative because not every party wants the regular restaurant menu. 

He’s sitting in the office making some notes on a cheesecake recipe and trying to work on the holiday schedule—it’s never fun telling someone else they have to work Christmas Eve—when Louis comes in and closes the door. 

Just being alone with him now makes Harry a little nervous that he’s going to do or say something stupid. And that just pisses him off. Feelings apparently make him an idiot. He’s never felt like he was going to embarrass himself in front of any of the other people he’s been with. So it’s definitely the feelings. 

“Hey, I saw you were working on the holiday schedule and I wanted to let you know I _will_ be here.”

“Were you planning to take off?” Harry frowns. Managers always have to work.

“No, no. I just know how you are about people not working on their birthdays. Just wanted to make sure you knew I still plan to be here Christmas Eve.”

“Your birthday is Christmas Eve?” 

Louis nods. “Yeah. Not like it matters. Can’t go visit family and I, um… I haven’t really made any friends here, so…” 

Harry can’t help but feel somewhat responsible, even though he knows he’s not. It’s just that, if it wasn’t for the bond, Harry probably would’ve invited Louis over to watch movies with him and Niall or to lunch or just to hang out. He’d been planning on it, actually, wanting to make friends with his new co-manager. But then Louis showed up and Harry was shitty and then they were okay and now things are weird because of his feelings and he wonders if Louis thinks that Harry’s back to hating him again.

He turns to leave and Harry can’t let him go. “Hey, um… Well, I’ll be here too, so… would you want to maybe hang out on Christmas?”

“Yeah, alright. No gifts though.” 

Ω

Two weeks before Christmas they hold the restaurant Christmas party on a Tuesday night. 

They close an hour early and as soon as the dining room is clean, everyone pushes the tables and chairs out of the way, and the next thing Harry knows he’s counting how many people he thinks will call in sick the next day. 

As managers, he and Louis have to remain sober and Harry is actually quite thankful for the excuse not to drink because they’re two days from their bond dissipating and if he was in the least bit inebriated, he’d probably be all over Louis. Throughout the night he finds himself drifting closer to Louis without noticing and as soon as realizes what he’s doing, he makes a beeline to the opposite side of the room. 

It works as long as Louis doesn’t seek him out. 

“Harry?” Even Louis’ quiet voice is loud in the empty kitchen and Harry jumps slightly when he hears him. 

He’s been hiding in the kitchen for ten minutes now. The other employees have been leaving a few at a time, and when he left the dining room there were only a couple of people still there, and without the crowd and the excuse of other people to talk to, he couldn’t stop himself from wandering into Louis’ space. But it’s not like he can keep hiding when Louis has to know he’s there. 

“Hey.” Harry steps around the corner of the dry storage room where he was _checking inventory._ “What’s up?”

“There you are. Everyone’s gone. Party’s over.” Louis carries the dirty dishes he has stacked up in his hands back to the dishwasher, loads them in, and starts it up. “That’s the last of it.”

“I didn’t mean to make you clean up alone. I—”

“Niall and Jess helped. It’s done. Don’t worry about it.”

“Okay, um… I’ll grab my things and tell Niall and we can go.”

“Niall left. Wanted to walk Jess.” Louis pursed his lips and raises his eyebrows. “Think there’s something going on there?”

“Oh, I… Maybe?” Harry feels the wrinkle deepening between his eyebrows as he thinks it over. He hasn’t been the best roommate or friend lately and he has no clue what Niall’s been doing with his free time. 

Louis nods and walks through the kitchen to the office right beside Harry. It’s all Harry can do not to push him against the wall and beg Louis to fuck him and bond him again, and he wonders if Louis can smell it on him, but he doesn’t say anything. 

The people sharing the sidewalk with them help him to keep his hands to himself, but on the subway, when he walks to the far side, Louis follows and sits down next to him, and Harry’s so tired that he just allows his body to do what it wants and leans into Louis’ side.

“You alright?” 

“Yes.” Harry huffs and crosses his arms, but doesn’t move away from Louis. “No. I’m…”

“Oh, um… Yeah. Me too, actually.” Louis pats Harry’s knee and says, “It’s a bit different than last time.” 

“Stronger. Harder to ignore.” Harry sighs and Louis nods and they’re silent until they leave the subway and are around the corner from Louis’ apartment. Rather than make conversation, Harry spends the walk staring at Louis out of the corner of his eye, holding tight to his bag with both hands to keep from touching him. 

Louis drops his keys and Harry turns without thinking, walking while looking behind him for a few steps just so that he can keep looking at Louis. He faces forward again and bumps shoulders with an Alpha who’s going in the opposite direction and taking up half of the sidewalk. Harry smiles apologetically and says, “Excuse me.”

“Watch it, O.”

“You watch it, dickhead.” Harry flips him off and keeps walking.

The Alpha raises his voice and says to Louis, “Man, you need to control your O.”

Harry gets caught on the Alpha’s assumption that he and Louis are together and can’t come up with a suitable retort, but when Louis stops walking, Harry does too.

“You need to fuck off,” Louis snaps and nods towards Harry. “He controls himself just fine. Didn’t punch you, even though he wants to.”

The other Alpha shakes his head disapprovingly and scoffs, but he leaves without saying anything further.

“Okay?” Louis comes closer and lightly grabs Harry’s bicep, holding on while they walk.

Harry shrugs. Because he’s far from okay, but it’s nothing to do with that Alpha. It’s odd. He’s been horny all day, but not enough to get hard or wet. Now though, his body feels warm and his heart is beating a little harder, all because of what Louis said to that Alpha.

He focuses on the sidewalk in front of them, counting cracks to distract himself, and doesn’t notice they’ve reached Louis’ apartment.

“Sorry that guy was a dick. Sorry you have to deal with shit like that. Just because you’re an Omega doesn’t mean some asshole on the street has the right—”

Harry shuts him up with a kiss. It’s too forceful and off center, but Harry adjusts and cups Louis’ jaw in one hand, wraps his other arm around him, pulling him closer and kissing him harder. As soon as Harry deepens the kiss, he can feel the relief in the bond, and he sighs against Louis’ lips.

With a tight grip on Harry’s shoulders, Louis pushes and separates them. “Harry, this isn’t… this is the bond. This isn’t what you think it is. It’s—”

“Don’t care.” Harry steps back, putting more distance between them, and trying to think of a way to tell Louis that he’s not so sure it _is_ the bond. “I… I’m… I need…”

“You _need_ to go home.”

“I _need_ to get fucked.”

“Harry!” Louis says it like he’s scandalized. 

“I can’t help it! I’m horny. And it’s not like I can go out and pick someone up. Not that I want to. I just—” Harry cuts himself off when he smells Louis’ jealousy.

“Fine.”

“Fine?”

“We can, um… We can. But just this once. The bond will be gone in a few days and you’ll be fine.”

Harry practically bowls him over trying to kiss him again, and Louis laughs into his mouth, stumbling backwards. His apartment is on the third floor and the only reason they make it up the stairs without stopping is that Louis takes off running and Harry is distracted by his bouncing bum. 

When he gets to the top, Louis is already pushing his apartment door open and Harry wordlessly follows him inside, pressing up against his back and kissing the side of his neck before they even shut the door. 

Though he’s never been in Louis’ apartment, Harry doesn’t take more than a cursory glance around before dropping his bag and crowding Louis against the nearest wall. Maybe it’s the bond coming to an end or maybe it’s that they’re in Louis’ apartment or maybe there’s some other reason for it, but Louis scent is headier. Harry can’t help but press his nose to Louis’ neck, inhaling deeply.

It only makes Harry want him more. 

When Harry kisses beneath his ear, Louis hums appreciatively and lets his head fall to the side, running his hands up and down Harry’s back, pushing the hem of Harry’s shirt up to scratch his thumbnails over the soft skin of his hips, making him shiver and harden in his pants. 

He drops his hands from the wall and grabs handfuls of Louis’ ass, pulling him closer and moaning as soon as he gets the slightest friction against his clothed cock. The addition of arousal to Louis’ already sublime scent has Harry’s mind swimming and before he realizes what he’s doing, he bends his knees, grips the backs of Louis’ thighs, and picks him up, grinding against him when Louis wraps his legs around his waist. 

Breathing through his nose is making it impossible to think, so Harry parts his lips to take a breath to clear his head, but Louis slips his tongue inside and thinking suddenly seems unnecessary. Louis drapes his arms over Harry’s shoulders and tilts his head, kissing him harder, and nipping at Harry’s bottom lip. 

Harry feels like he’s been on edge all day, especially the last few hours during the party after almost everyone changed out of their uniforms and into their own clothes. 

The tight jeans and soft grey sweater that Louis put on made it difficult for Harry to look at anything other than Louis’ ass, which led to Harry thinking about Louis’ ass _without_ jeans, which led to Harry thinking about the way Louis’ ass looked during their shared rut and heat when he was on his hands and knees and taking Harry’s cock so well that he reduced Harry to a drooling, incoherent idiot only capable of grunts and monosyllabic words. 

Which is what he thinks about when he digs his fingers into the muscles of Louis’ ass, pressing him against the wall, rutting harder and faster until he comes in his pants like a teenager.

The orgasm makes his legs so shaky that he stumbles sideways, and Louis lightly scratches the hair at the nape of Harry’s neck. “Put me down, baby.”

As much as he’d like to keep his hands gripped tightly to Louis’ ass, the aftershocks of his orgasm have him reeling. It takes a few seconds for his brain to signal to his hands, but when he does finally let go of Louis, he holds tight to Harry’s shoulders and gracefully lowers himself down, takes Harry by the hand and leads him to the bedroom. 

The mess in his pants should be uncomfortable, but he’s hardly aware of it, still hard and still horny. All he wants to do is lie down in Louis’ bed and breathe him in while they fuck. If he’s lucky, maybe Louis will knot him. He tries not to think about the bond and how much of what he wants is due to it. Or how little.

“Harry?” Louis frowns slightly and raises his hand to cup Harry’s cheek. “Alright?”

Nodding is less demanding than speech and it buys him a few seconds. He wants to look around the room, but can’t take his eyes off of Louis long enough to see more than the bed behind him, and then he only blinks and sighs, focusing on the blue of Louis’ eyes again. The unmade bed calls to him and Harry glances down, notices their hands are still connected, and tries to ignore how unsure he sounds when he asks, “Bed?”

“Yeah. Lie down and I’ll be right back. Think I’ve got some condoms in the top drawer, if you want to grab them.” Louis points to the nightstand and leaves the room. 

Harry doesn’t open the drawer to look for them, still feeling a little loopy from the strength of his orgasm and the overpowering scent of Louis’ arousal. He’s confused as to why Louis would want to use a condom now when they decided not to during their shared rut and heat. Instead, he strips out of his clothes, hesitating once he’s standing there in his underwear, finally pushing them down and kicking them into the pile of his clothes. 

When Louis returns, Harry’s still standing there beside the bed, chewing on his lower lip. He places his hand on Harry’s lower back and guides him closer to the bed, whispering, “On your back.”

Harry crawls onto the mattress, lying down in the middle with his head propped up on Louis’ pillows, watching Louis. He’s naked, with a washcloth in his hand, and the sight of his hard cock reminds Harry that Louis hasn’t come yet. When he climbs onto the foot of the bed, he leans forward and cleans the drying come out of Harry’s pubes and off of his dick, the warm damp cloth making him hiss as it drags over the head. 

“There. That’s better.” Louis tosses the cloth to the floor. “Thought that might make you more comfortable.”

Harry nods again. 

In the darkness of Louis’ bedroom, all he can see are shadows, the silhouette of Louis hovering over him, and the glint of what little light there is reflecting in Louis’ blue eyes. His body feels heavy and his mind feels like it’s floating away, and it’s a struggle to lift his hands to rest on Louis’ back when he settles on top of Harry and presses their lips together. 

Louis lifts up and looks to the side and Harry frowns, wondering what’s taking his attention away, figuring it out as soon as Louis reaches for the nightstand. Harry whines and shakes his head. 

“You don’t want a condom?” 

Harry shakes his head again. 

“Makes it harder to keep from knotting you.”

Blinking up at him slowly, his eyes finally adjusting to the low light, Harry swallows the saliva gathering in his mouth and croaks, “Want your knot.”

Louis sits back a bit, searching Harry’s face. “You’re sure?”

“Yeah.” Harry clears his throat. “Yeah. I’m sure.”

Louis’ obvious hesitation makes Harry frown because of course he wants Louis to knot him. He wants Louis to bite him and bond him and mate him too, he just hadn’t realized it until that very second. He pouts and Louis rolls his eyes fondly, grinning. 

“Just checking.” Louis sits up between Harry’s legs, bending Harry’s knees and rubbing his hands up and down Harry’s calves until he relaxes enough that his legs fall open. 

The first touch of Louis’ finger against his rim makes him moan louder and longer than it should and Harry closes his eyes, embarrassed. But when Louis finally pushes that finger inside, Harry is unable to keep himself from doing it again. After that, he stops noticing what noises he makes and when Louis asks him to lift his hips and puts a pillow under him, he does it without question, then grabs the back of his thighs and holds his legs open without any of the shame he felt before. 

Being filled with Louis’ Alpha cock has him instantly on the verge of a second orgasm and he doesn’t bother trying to hold back, coming all over his stomach as soon as Louis dicks in deep and brushes against his prostate. Harry claws at Louis’ back when it feels like he’s going to pull out and Louis hisses, thrusting in hard enough that Harry yelps, tightening his legs around Louis’ waist. 

His knot begins to swell and Louis pistons his hips faster, nuzzling against Harry’s mark, nipping at the spot behind his ear. Harry’s entire body shivers and he murmurs, “Don’t— Don’t let it end.” Louis nods, his beard scratching over the fading bondmark as he fucks inside, forcing his knot past the tight muscle one last time, and Harry stretches his neck in invitation. “Now. Want it now.”

“You’ve got it, baby.” Louis circles his hips, pressing his lips against the bondmark. He lifts himself up on his forearms, diving down and kissing Harry messily. Hooking his arms underneath Harry, he rolls them over, knot tugging at Harry’s rim until he settles on top of Louis and it slides in deeper, hitting his prostate and shocking another orgasm out of him. Louis groans as Harry’s body tightens around him and he drags his hands up and down Harry’s back and arms, finally bringing them to rest just above Harry’s bum. 

With his face buried in the crook of Louis’ neck, Harry tries to find the words to ask Louis again. “Lou, I… I want it. Your bite. The bond. Do it, please…”

Louis gasps and his hips stutter, forcing more come from Harry’s cock. He takes a deep breath. “No, baby. I can’t.”

“But, I want—”

“No,” Louis says firmly. “You don’t want that. It’s just the old bond.” He strokes Harry’s hair and holds him still where he is, which is for the best because it’s easier for him to hide the tears. While they soak into Louis’ pillow, Harry takes measured breaths, trying to force himself to stop crying. He falls asleep with Louis’ knot still deep inside, and when he wakes up in the morning, he dresses as quietly as he can, and walks home.

The sun isn’t up and his phone is dead, so he has no idea if he’s right, but he thinks it’s around six o’clock and that means that Niall is dead asleep in his bed with headphones on and Harry doesn’t even have to attempt to keep it down, still he tries to be quiet. It’s a futile effort because Niall hops up off the couch as soon as Harry opens the door, crossing the room in seconds. “Are you alright? Where the hell have you been?”

“I… Fuck. Sorry, man. I’m fine.” Harry drops his bag by the door and runs his fingers through his hair, suddenly aware that he didn’t check the mirror before he left Louis’ apartment. “Should’ve called you. I wasn’t thinking.”

“Is your Alpha in town? You smell like Alpha.”

“Niall!” Harry tries to be offended. He really does. 

“Sorry, dude. But like, I’m not normally even aware of scents. If I can smell you, I figure I’m meant to.”

“No, my Alpha isn’t in town. I don’t have one anymore.” It doesn’t occur to him until after he’s said it that the time to tell Niall about the breakup of his fake relationship with a non-existent Alpha is probably not when he’s standing there stinking of Alpha and probably smelling like sex. 

He didn’t sleep well. He’s tired and cranky. Dirty and itchy from the still tacky and not-quite-dry-in-places mixture of come and slick on his skin. And he’s sad. Because he knew better than to ask Louis to bite him again. He should’ve kept his mouth shut, but now he’s crossed the line and he doesn’t think he can bear it, working with him any longer.

“What happened?”

“Fuck. Okay.” In for a penny. Harry tells him everything. Well, not everything. But _enough._ And Niall isn’t even shocked.

“My college roommate’s O and he did it. Drove to Chicago to do it, actually.”

“Are you not— Did you hear me say that I paid _Louis_ to bond me?”

“Yeah, man. That’s some crazy soulmate level shit. Tell him how you feel. Get married and have babies and name one after me. A middle name, at least.”

“Wish it was as easy as it sounds.” Harry grins ruefully as he shakes his head. “It’s not like that for him.” 

“No way.” Niall narrows his eyes. “You sure?”

“Yeah, man.” Harry doesn’t want to walk Niall through his rejection. It’s embarrassing enough to think about. “Let’s just say he made it clear.”

“Oh.” Niall looks as disappointed as Harry feels.

“Yeah. So… I’m going to shower and nap because I have to work later.” 

While he scrubs his skin pink, he thinks about where he might like to live. And how far away he’d have to move to forget about Louis. 

Ω

Thank every deity ever worshipped that the kitchen catches on fire. Nothing huge or damaging, but Niall spills a pot of salad dressing on the hot stove top and since it’s oil-based, it’s enough of an emergency that Harry is one hundred percent occupied for the rest of the night, leaving with Niall and Louis at the same time. 

After that, Harry makes sure that he and Louis are rarely alone together. The only time they are, they’re in the office, working. One night Louis tries to talk about it, but he only gets as far as apologizing for upsetting Harry before Harry turns and walks out of the office, through the kitchen and dining room to the bathroom, where he pees and washes his hands before walking back to the office.

When Harry comes through the door, Louis says, “I take it you don’t want to talk about it.”

“Bingo.” 

“Fine.” Louis presses his lips into a thin line and there’s a crease between his eyebrows that Harry doesn’t recall seeing before. He brings it up again two days later and all Harry has to do is shake his head before Louis says, “Never mind. Forget I said anything. I won’t… I won’t bring it up again.” 

A few days later, the bond is gone, though the scar remains. 

They don’t talk about it and Harry worries that he’s going to be sick every time they’re alone together. He starts leaving the office door open while the two of them are working at the end of the night, just because it makes it feel more public. It’s the most uncomfortable Harry’s ever been in his life, but does make it easier to start seriously looking for a job far, far away. 

The moment Harry found out that Louis’ birthday was Christmas Eve and that he’d be at work, he started planning. And considering that he’s already told a handful of other employees, he can’t cancel. Plus, he wants to. It doesn’t matter what happened between them. Louis deserves to have a happy birthday and Harry wants to do what he can to make it good. 

If things go as planned Harry’ll be out of there right after the new year. He can make it another week. If he can just get past the holidays, he’ll have the time to update his resume and send it out. 

Ω

It didn’t take long for Louis to start avoiding him too, so on Christmas Eve he doesn’t wander back into the kitchen, allowing Harry to finish his cake and blow up balloons and get everyone together to surprise him the second he gives the signal. Jess pushes open the kitchen door, Louis walks through, and everyone shouts “Happy birthday!”

Eyes wide and hands covering his mouth, Louis stands still for a second before he looks straight to Harry. Thankfully, Niall starts singing “For He’s a Jolly Good Fellow” and everyone joins in and Harry’s able to move to the back of the crowd and slip out into the dining room unnoticed. He stays out front closing down the bar and the dining room and locking the door as soon as the last customer leaves. When he walks back into the kitchen, it’s quiet and most of the lights are off. He heads for the office, assuming that Niall and Louis are waiting for him there together. The door is open, so Harry walks straight in, stopping mid-step when he realizes that Niall isn’t there. 

“Thank you.” Louis stands up as soon as Harry walks through the door. “Niall said you did all of that.”

“Yeah, I— Where is he? Niall?”

“Jess asked him to walk her home.”

“Oh.”

“Right. Well. Thanks for, you know, doing that. I wasn’t expecting anything, so…”

“It’s fine, Louis. You deserve to have a nice birthday, even if you have to work.”

Louis stares at him, then looks down at the desk and pushes a piece of paper across and Harry knows what it is before he’s close enough to read it. His resume. He left it on the printer.

“I was going to send it out after the new year.”

“Are you… Is this because of me?”

Harry looks away, but he nods once quickly.

“I don’t get it. I… But the bond is gone now, so—”

“Exactly.” Harry grabs his coat. It’s easier to talk to Louis if he can look somewhere else while he does it. “It’s late. Can we just lock up and get out of here?”

“Yeah. Sure.” 

Without waiting, Harry turns and goes to wait by the back door of the kitchen. Neither of them speak on the walk to the subway, and Harry sits as far as he can from Louis on the ride home, trying and failing to avoid his scent. 

They ascend the stairs and when they step out into the open air, Harry glances over and is overcome with sadness at the prospect of never seeing Louis again. He feels hollow and he hasn’t even left town yet.

Around the corner from his apartment, Louis clears his throat and says, “I don’t… I won’t pretend to understand, but if you need me to bite you for any of the jobs you’re planning to apply for, I will.”

“Are you fucking serious?” Harry stops in the middle of the sidewalk. 

Louis turns to face him. “Yeah. I mean, if it’ll help you get a job, I—”

“How can you say that? I don’t get you.”

“What’s there to get?” He shrugs and Harry wants to scream. “If you need it, I’ll do it.”

“How can you offer that when you _just_ told me no?”

“That… That was different, Harry. You only asked because the old one was ending and your inhibitions were down.” He shakes his head and drops his chin to his chest. “You didn’t mean it.”

“I… Oh. Wow. You know, you’re right.” Harry shoves his hands in his pockets and strides past Louis, rounding the corner and wondering how embarrassed he’d actually be if he took off running. He can smell Louis, even walking behind him, and it hits him then, the part of Louis’ scent he’s been unable to pinpoint. It’s the mild coconut and honey of his own scent and his steps falter. He spins around and Louis freezes not ten feet away. “Being an Omega doesn’t make me stupid or irrational and I thought, of all Alphas, you might be able to comprehend that. My mistake.”

Harry hurries away again, but doesn’t get far before Louis grabs his elbow. “Of course I get that, Harry. I don’t think you’re—”

“You literally just said that I didn’t know what I meant asking you to bond me.”

“But I—”

“As if I don’t know what my feelings are.”

“I—”

“News flash, Lou, there’s no bond pulling me towards you now. We’re not naked! You’re not inside me! And I don’t know about inhibitions, but I’m pissed as hell at you right now and I still want your fucking mark on me! I don’t want it for some stupid job. I want it because I love you.”

Louis jerks back, blinking rapidly. “You… I… You…” 

“And it’s fine that you don’t—”

“Shut up. Oh my god, I—” Louis crosses the few feet of sidewalk between them in a split second, grabbing Harry’s shoulders, jumping up to wrap his legs around Harry’s waist, and kissing him hard enough to knock his head backwards and send him staggering. 

Harry wrenches his mouth away from Louis’. “What are you doing?”

“I love you too. I’m sorry! I thought— I thought it was just me. I didn’t mean to upset you. I’m sorry— Oh, shit. Put me down. Sorry. I…” Harry sets him down and Louis takes a step back, brushing his hair off his forehead and under the yellow streetlight, Harry can still see his blush. “I love you.”

“You…” 

“I love you. Saying no while you were on my knot was the hardest thing I’ve ever done.”

“Then why?”

“I don’t want that bond—” Harry shakes his head and steps back. If Louis doesn’t want to bond… “I want a new bond. A new mark. Even if we— If this is what I think it is, I want this healed.” Louis reaches out and pulls Harry’s collar down with his thumb and scratches against the scar of their old mark and Harry shivers. “Before we bond again.”

Harry lifts his hand to meet Louis’ where it rests on his shoulder, and crowds up close to him, wrapping his other arm around Louis’ waist. “Yeah?”

“Yeah.” Louis nods and nudges their noses together, lips brushing against Harry’s as he whispers, “Want to start all over with you.” 

Ω

The full moon that marks a year since they let the initial bond fade happens on the last day of November. They talked about it a lot, especially in the beginning, and again over the summer when they decided to move in together. But it was always in more of a vague _someday_ way. Somehow they’ve never gotten into the specifics. Now it’s been more than a month that Harry’s been walking around without a trace of Louis’ mark on him and he feels like he’s losing it. 

He knows that Louis loves him, and he feels stupid even wanting the mark so much, but he can’t help it. Harry wants to belong to him in every sense of the word. He was even planning to propose to Louis on New Year’s Eve, but he made those plans under the assumption that he’d be wearing Louis’ bondmark again and they’d be mated by Christmas. 

Harry sighs. There’s no use putting it off anymore. The last customers left over an hour ago and it’s just him and Louis in the restaurant now. When he first walked into the cooler there were at least a dozen employees still on the clock, but on his way out the door, Niall made sure to pop into the cooler to tell him they were alone and to say, “Just ask him, man.”

He will. It’s just that it’s New Year’s Eve and he’s trying to adjust his expectations. When he thought he’d be proposing to Louis at midnight, he’d planned the whole evening. He knew they’d have to work, but that they’d be off by midnight, so he went all out, splurging on a hotel room with a view and arranging to have chocolate covered strawberries and chilled champagne waiting and rose petals on the bed. Once he realized that Louis wasn’t planning to bond him on Christmas, he tried to make himself cancel the reservations, but couldn’t go through with it. 

Now he’s standing on the sidewalk, trying to convince Louis that they should keep walking instead of catching the subway like they do every other night. 

“Come on, Lou, indulge me.” Harry tugs him along, tightening his grip on Louis’ hand. 

“It’s fucking cold, baby.” Louis shivers, but falls into step beside him. “We’re going to be on the subway at midnight, you know.”

Harry hums and keeps walking. One more block. He walks faster, rounds the corner, and drags Louis behind him through the front door of a hotel that they probably should’ve changed out of their work uniforms before visiting. 

“Harry, what the fuck?” Louis trips a bit when Harry darts towards the elevators, digging through his pocket for the keycard that they gave him when he snuck over and checked into their room earlier in the evening. 

He doesn’t say anything, just holds tight to Louis’ hand and jabs at the button until the doors close. When the doors slide open, he lets go of Louis’ hand and steps into the hallway. “So… I got us a room.”

“Ooh, nice. Hotel sex. Happy new year indeed. Thanks, baby.” Louis presses a kiss to Harry’s cheek. “Lead the way.”

As soon as he turns to walk down the hall, Harry pouts. He’d rather wait until the morning to talk about anything serious, but sex with Louis always makes it hard for him to keep his mouth shut. It’s been a test of will every time they’ve had sex not to ask for his bite—their second shared heat and rut were especially difficult—and with his emotions so close to the surface… 

He unlocks the door and while Louis oohs and ahhs over the room, Harry tries to decide if he should wait until after midnight. He nods when Louis says he’d rather take a quick solo shower, and as soon as he’s done, Harry jumps into the spray. 

The hot water and steam do nothing to reassure him that everything’s alright, so he dries and wraps the towel tightly around his waist. He doesn’t want to end up accidentally naked if the upcoming discussion turns heated. Harry stretches his neck side to side and winces when he sees the empty space reflected in the foggy mirror, but that is apparently the motivation he needs. 

Throwing open the bathroom door, Harry strides into the room, frown in place, ready to face things head on, and freezing as soon as he sees Louis. “I… Lou?”

“Hi, baby.” Louis looks up at him through his eyelashes and Harry can do nothing but stare because, well, Louis is naked. But he’s also down on one knee with a fucking ring in his hand. “When I met you for the first time, I thought that life was incredibly unfair. Because there stood the most beautiful man in the world, looking and sounding and smelling like everything I’d ever wanted, and I knew I’d never see him again. And yet, two years later, here we are. Harry Styles, will you marry me?”

“You— You’re proposing to me naked?” 

“I…” Louis looks down, as if only noticing his lack of clothes. “I, um… Well, I’d planned this a little differently. See, at home I’ve got a fancy suit that I was going to change into while you showered, and I’ve got a whole speech I’d written. Notecards, um… I have notecards. And like, I know how you usually spend New Year’s Eve, so I thought we’d do it twice, right? You fuck me before midnight, then I’ll fuck you after midnight and mate-bond you when I knot you, but it’s later than I thought it’d be and now it’s almost midnight, so I—”

“Yes.” Harry reaches for Louis’ hand, which he keeps gesturing with, and pulls him to his feet. “Yes, I want to marry you and bond with you and be your mate and be with you forever, but can we just… How about this?”

Louis raises his eyebrows and tugs Harry’s left hand, holding it up and sliding the simple gold band onto Harry’s ring finger. “How about what?”

“Hmm?” Harry glances down, distracted by the ring on his hand. “Oh! How about you just fuck me, and I’ll fuck you tomorrow when we get home and I can give you the ring I was planning to propose to you with?”

“Harry! What—”

“Later, babe. I’ve been waiting for you to bond me for a month.” Harry drops his towel and pushes Louis down on top of the rose petal covered bed, crawling over him and settling between Louis’ legs. “Love you.”

Louis runs his fingers through Harry’s damp hair and tugs it gently, wraps his other arm around Harry and flips them over, caging him in. “Love you too, baby.”

When Louis scents him, Harry relaxes, still distracted by the perfume of Louis’ pheromones two years later. As much as it’s possible, he’s adjusted to it, but at times like this, when he’s feeling vulnerable or particularly stressed, it takes him by surprise, how much he loves it. How good it makes him feel. 

Louis’ lips are soft when he trails kisses over Harry’s jaw, behind his ear, and down his neck, so it makes Harry jump when he sucks harshly on the skin all around where their bondmark will be, leaving that space empty. Pulling back, Louis hums and presses his thumb into the bruises, then leans back down to suck and bite at the skin on the other side of Harry’s neck. Once he’s satisfied with that bruise, he moves on to the hollow of Harry’s throat, biting hard enough to leave a mark, but not break the skin. 

Nipping at Harry’s collarbones, he slides his hands down to Harry’s nipples, pinching and pulling at them while he kisses his way across his chest and over his stomach, where he sucks bruises on either side of Harry’s belly button, biting just below it, and licking at the tip of his hard cock.

By the time Louis gets inside him, Harry’s going to be covered in bite marks and bruises. He lifts his hips, searching for friction, but Louis stops him, wrapping his hand around Harry’s dick and slowly stroking it while he sucks another bruise on his inner thigh. Their scents blended together with their arousal always make Harry wet, despite his suppressants, and he moans when Louis drags two fingers over his rim, spreading his slick around before pushing one finger inside. 

Louis sucks the head of Harry’s dick between his lips, and slips a second finger in beside the first. While he pumps his fingers in and out, he takes more of Harry’s length into his mouth, tightening his lips around it. With a third finger inside, he slowly spreads them apart, fucking them in and out until Harry pulls his knees back and growls up at the ceiling. 

“Lou, come on. Want you fucking me at midnight.” 

He sucks hard at the head once more and finally lets it slip from his mouth, pulling his fingers free, and dipping down to lick over Harry’s rim.

“Louis!” As much as he loves having Louis’ mouth on him, it’s just a distraction tonight.

With his face pressed against Harry’s inner thigh, Louis snickers. He sits up and grabs for a pillow to prop Harry’s hips up, and once he’s situated, Louis fucks two fingers inside again, grazing over Harry’s prostate and making his body jerk before spreading his slick over Louis’ cock. 

Looming over him, Louis holds Harry’s gaze while he guides his cock to press against Harry’s rim, sliding up and down until it catches and he begins to push inside. Harry sighs happily as Louis’ cock stretches him, filling him perfectly, and scratches his nails lightly over Louis’ back. 

Louis moves slowly at first, sliding in and out and searching out Harry’s spot, kissing him sweetly until he finds it and Harry’s hips buck underneath him. He sits up and throws Harry’s legs over his shoulders, fucking him faster and hitting his prostate whenever he thrusts deep. Panting against Harry’s mouth, he sucks Harry’s lower lip between his teeth, then lets it go and kisses it again. He drags his lips across Harry’s jaw, scratching him with his beard, and nipping at his ear.

“Tell me when you want it baby,” Louis whispers and places a kiss on the empty spot on Harry’s neck. 

Harry nods and groans when he feels Louis’ knot starting to form. It’s been more than a year since the first time, and he hopes he’ll never get used to the feeling of Louis’ knot. He lifts his hips when it gets big enough that Louis has to pull back and watch as he forces it past Harry’s rim. With his knot locked inside, Louis leans down and buries his face against Harry’s neck, circling his hips.

Outside the fireworks start up and the crowd roars as the clock strikes midnight. “Now, Lou. Do it—”

Louis bites down hard, breaking the skin, and Harry starts to come, tightening around Louis’ knot. His hips stutter and he whines against Harry’s skin, body trembling as his orgasm takes hold. Sucking on the broken skin, Louis seals their bond, and Harry feels it snap into place, that phantom sensation so much stronger and such a contrast to their earlier tenuous bond. A flood of Louis’ love travels through him and Harry gasps, overcome by the energy flowing between them. He inhales and the mix of their scents sends an aftershock through his system. 

While licking and sucking over the new bondmark, Louis rolls them over again, a maneuver he’s perfected with practice, and helps Harry get settled on top of him. Harry can feel himself starting to drift off already, the release of pheromones making him sleepy. Louis licks over the wound once more and presses a kiss to it, scratching Harry’s scalp with one hand and pulling the blanket over their bodies with the other. 

They fall asleep still connected, and as soon as they get home the following day, Harry leads him to the bedroom, drops to his knees, and slips his own gold band onto Louis’ ring finger. 

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! Comments and kudos are always appreciated ❤️
> 
> [Rebloggable Tumblr post is here](http://kingsofeverything.tumblr.com/post/182413130500/leave-your-mark-on-me-by-fullonlarrie-when-chef) if you want to share.
> 
>  
> 
> ** A drunk rude Alpha tries to make his Omega date leave the restaurant and Harry stops him. The Alpha shoves Harry, and Louis takes the alpha outside while Harry and Niall stay with the Omega.


End file.
